Briery Knob by Jerry Nelson - HTML preview

Epilogue

So who killed Kathy and Nancy that summer day on Briery Knob in Pocahontas County, West Virginia in the middle of Appalachia?

The killer may have died on November 20, 2013 in Missouri with a needle in his arm. Or he may be living in Florida

It’s only late at night, when neighbors gather on sagging porches and the kids have gone to bed, that anyone talks about it.

Locals have come up with a theory over the years.

Hillsboro is a close-knit, and tight-lipped, community. In 1980 even the sheriff’s deputies were locals. Slowly details leaked which led many to begin wondering if they had seen a killer walk free.

When Franklin confessed to Powers, he was so detailed a reasonable person would believe he had killed the girls. According to Powers, Franklin knew what the last meal was he shared with the girl’s. The coroner’s report agreed as Franklin’s statement matched the stomach contents. Franklin knew how the bodies were found, what position they were left in. He even knew where the girls’ backpacks had been found — 60 miles away.

Beard and Franklin met at Pierce’s Hillsboro compound and became fast friends. Years later when Beard was in prison and Franklin was on death row the two began a correspondence. Full of coded words to avoid detection by the Bureau of Prisons’ eagle-eye mail screeners, Beard slowly fed Franklin the details of the murders.

Franklin hatched a scheme to get his buddy set free and even put a little cash in Beard’s pocket so he could start a new life.

Franklin regurgitated the information to Powers, which was notarized and presented as evidence.

As for the question of who killed the girls?

The truth may never be known.