Chapter Thirty:Avril Terry:Part Two

 



  The newspapers that week were filled with stories of Francis Gary Powers and his U2 spy plane. He had been shot down over the Soviet Union in May of that year and was being held for spying. 

    The Rome Olympics would be starting on August 25th, 1960 and sports fans were following that news as well. 

    Avril had gone on the birthday errand on Tuesday morning around 9:15.  It was a walk that should have taken less than a half hour.  Her mother was concerned enough at 10:30 to start phoning all the shops she thought Avril might have gone in or passed.  By noon she had called the police and neighbors and friends were looking. 

    On Wednesday August 17th the newspapers in Indiana would be filled with stories of Avril.  Her case was highly unusual in that Avril’s killer would be caught before Avril was ever found. It’s not clear what led the police to Emmett Oliver Hashfield’s home.  He was a parolee and perhaps they decided to check in with all parolees in the area. They found Hashfield in a blood stained bed in his rented home and arrested him almost immediately.  The living room, bedroom and bed were covered in blood. Hashfield had scratches all over his face and arms as if he had been in a fight. Clothing belonging to Avril was found in the house as well.  Her bra was in his bloody car interior along with a bloody hammer. 

   Avril’s beloved pet chameleons were found in a dresser drawer of Hashfield’s home.  One was still alive but the other one was found dead with a string tied around its neck.  

    They had found her clothes, her pets and her blood but where was Avril.  Police in Boonville began questioning Hashfield.  Word spread quickly in the small town of the grisly finds and that a suspect was in custody.  An angry crowd of mostly teens gathered outside the jail. Some shouted for the police to bring out the suspect. Two teen boys were arrested when they threw tomatoes at the jail.

   The search for Avril intensified.  Boonville was a few miles north of the Ohio River and between the two were old surface “strip” style coal mines.  This kind of mining used to leave behind large open pits that nature eventually would take over again.  They filled with water and became like lakes.  Now, surface mines are required to replace all the layers of soil in order, add extra soil and plant native plants after taking the coal.   But in 1960 there were no reclamation laws and these places were acres of wastelands of open pits full of water, weeds and briars and bushes. Searchers on the ground and planes in the air were looking desperately for Avril. Her father was hopeful that medical intervention could save her if they could find her in time.


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