HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Henrico homicide detectives are searching for valuable leads in a horrific double murder.
The crime happened more than 30-years ago, but there’s now new interest and new information.
The victims were two young people who were just out of high school with their lives ahead of them.
Even though their murders happened such a long time ago, family and friends are making a renewed push to bring their killer to justice.
“Even after 30 years, it’s still a big open wound on our family,” says Scott Margaret.
He was just 18 when someone brutally murdered his older brother Mike and Mike’s girlfriend Donna Hall.
The pair was stabbed repeatedly in a wooded area near Patterson Avenue and Gaskins Road.
A man walking his dog discovered Mike and Donna’s bodies four days after they were last seen alive.
“I think that this was very premeditated,” explained Margaret. “I think that this was a very brutal murder and it’s really hard to wrap your head around that.”
Although it happened more than three decades ago, there is still a lot of speculation about this horrific homicide.
Hall had just graduated from Freeman High School two months before her death.
Margaret, a Tucker High grad, also had a lot of friends.
Earlier this month, someone started a Facebook page — Justice for Donna Hall & Mike Margaret — hoping to stir up conversation and possible leads about this cold case.
“If it helps if it reawakens, if it jogs somebody’s memory you know all these years later, I think it’s a great thing,” contends Dennis Urick. He was Margaret’s best friend.
“To have something that shocking happen, you know I’m not afraid to say I’m still not over it,” says Urick.
Henrico Police are in the process of re-examining physical evidence from the scene.
They did discover a third blood type and will have it tested again because DNA has come a long way since 1984.
Detectives also encourage anyone with information about the case to come forward.
Cold case investigator Thomas Holsinger explains, “Call. Call. You never know. There’s a tremendous amount of evidence, a lot of speculation, a lot of its hear say, a lot of it’s truthful. Let us decipher that. Any bit of information helps.”
Investigators believe the victims may have been trying to buy pot when something went wrong. But at the same time, the brutal nature of their deaths doesn’t lend itself to a drug deal gone bad.
At this point they really hope someone will feel compelled to come forward with info that could bring answers to both victims’ families.
