Ashe man charged in tree-farm killings
By Jerry Sena
jtsena@mountaintimes.com
& Melanie Davis
melanie@mountaintimes.com

& Scott Nicholson

nicholson@mountaintimes.com

Virginia authorities have charged an Ashe County man with three counts of capital murder in the gun slayings of three men at a Christmas tree farm on the North Carolina-Virginia border last week.

U.S. Marshals arrested Frederick P. Hammer, 48, of Crumpler Saturday evening in Punta Gorda, Fla., as a person of interest in the fatal shootings of 74-year-old Ronald Hudler, his 45-year-old son Fred Hudler, and a 25-year-old tree farm employee, John Miller.

On Sunday, Grayson County, Va., Sheriff Richard Vaughan gathered with North Carolina, Virginia and U.S. officials at a press conference in Independence, Va., to announce that formal charges had been filed against Hammer.

Grayson County Commonwealth Attorney Douglas Vaught said the capital charges make the death penalty an option if Hammer is convicted.

Vaught said he expected those charges will be filed with the county's General District Court sometime Monday.

Hammer has waived extradition and is expected to be transferred from the holding facility at the Charlotte County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office to the New River Valley Regional Jail in Grayson County early this week. He likely will be arraigned sometime shortly after, Vaught said.

Hours after being called to the scene of the triple homicide just before noon on Jan. 24, authorities said they had focused their investigation on a large contingent of migrant workers employed at the Hudler's Grassy Creek/Mouth of Wilson area tree farm.

Hudler family members have told police that Ron Hudler kept large amounts of cash in a gun safe in his garage. Vaughan said Friday that Fred Hudler and the employee, Miller, had been out working on the farm before returning to Ron Hudler's residence. They arrived at the garage beside the residence about 10:30 a.m. where they apparently confronted the killer or killers attempting to steal the gun safe. Both Hudler and Miller were then shot to death.

Vaughan stated Ron Hudler may have heard the gunfire and investigated, only to be shot by the assailant. Vaughan would not disclose how much cash was in the safe but said none had yet been recovered.

The farm enlisted as many as 50 employees during the holiday harvest season. Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had assisted with that portion of the investigation.

But Vaughan said interviews with the victims' family and others had led them to question Hammer at about midnight Thursday night. They learned that Hammer himself had worked off and on doing construction work around the house at the Hudler's farm.

“We interviewed family members and we ended up developing some leads and we interviewed various residents,” Vaughan said when asked what had set Hammer apart from the numerous others who'd worked at the Hudler farm.

Vaughan said their interest was further heightened by Hammer's decision to go with his wife to Florida on Friday afternoon, the day after police questioned him. Hammer's parents live in Punta Gorda.

At 9 a.m. Saturday, law enforcement served a search warrant on Hammer's Crumpler home. Vaughan said several items were seized during the search but would not comment on what they were or their relationship, if any, to the case.

Vaughan said a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force had Hammer under surveillance at his stepfather's Punta Gorda home before he was arrested.

Hammer was initially arrested on a temporary felony detainer, Vaughan said, and a probation violation out of North Carolina. He had been placed on probation after a November conviction for writing a bad check in Iredell County. N.C. Department of Corrections records indicate Hammer passed the bad check Feb. 2, 2007.

“We developed several other leads while he was being held on this detainer and about 3 a.m. this morning we had gained enough information to obtain the three capital murder warrants,” Vaughan said Sunday afternoon.

Though investigators had indicated early on that they believed more than one person had been involved in the murders, Vaughan said Sunday afternoon they were uncertain of that now.

Hammer runs a firewood cutting and delivery service out of his home in Crumpler, Freddie P's Firewood. His business had been crippled by rumors that he'd had a hand in the disappearance of his nephew, 38-year-old Jim Blevins.

Hammer was questioned by police in March 2007 in connection with Blevins Feb. 27' disappearance. He was the last person known to have seen Blevins before he vanished. Blevins has not been seen since and Ashe County Sheriff James Williams said late this year he suspects Blevins has fallen victim to foul play.

Investigators with the Ashe County Sheriff's Office and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations executed a search warrant on Hammer's property at the intersection of N.C. 16 and Old N.C. 16 on March 15. They reported finding no physical evidence to tying Hammer to Blevins' disappearance.

On May 30, they executed a second warrant to search Hammer's truck and again found no physical evidence. Sheriff James Williams has identified Hammer as one of several persons of interest in Blevins' disappearance.

Vaughan would not comment on whether the Blevins case had any bearing on their interest in Hammer as a suspect in the triple murders last week.

Ron Hudler was well known among western North Carolina tree farmers as the owner of Hudler Carolina Tree Farms in the Grassy Creek/Mouth of Wilson area, about 15miles north of Jefferson. Hudler founded the operation in 1980 and had run the business with his sons, Dale, Fred, and Bill.

He also served as chairman of the N.C. Department of Labor's Agricultural Safety and Health Council.

"It's devastating. It's hard to fathom something like this," Harry Yates, a Watauga County Christmas Tree grower said. He is close to the Hudler family.

Yates served with Ron Hudler on the National Christmas Tree Association and both had been active in the state tree association.

"He was very instrumental in the national marketing campaign to promote real trees over artificial trees," Yates said.

"He was very personable and accommodating and gave a lot to the industry. The word I think of with him is 'solid.' He was very solid."

"It's a sad situation," Cline Church said. He's a fellow tree grower in Fleetwood and had worked with Ron Hudler on several tree associations.” He was a real asset to the Christmas tree industry. So far we've been so shocked, and I don't think many of us have accepted it yet. We're certainly going to miss him."

A Hudler Carolina Tree Farm Fraser fir tree was shipped to Washington, D.C,. in 1995 as the White House Christmas tree.

Fred Hudler is survived by two children. He was active, along with brother Dale Hudler, in the Ashe County Little League.

Dale was elected mayor of West Jefferson in November. He unseated longtime incumbent Dale Baldwin in the election and was sworn in December.

John Miller had begun working for the Hudlers last year. He and his wife Amanda Clark-Miller have a 6-and-a-half-month-old daughter.

On Thursday, shortly after the report of the shooting had gone out over police radios, Dale and brother Bill paced impatiently at the intersection of N.C. 16 and Charlie Spencer Road. They held one another and wept quietly as they awaited word from authorities that they could advance the mile or so up the road to their father's Christmas tree farm.

Dale identified the victims as his father and his brother before he and other family members entered their vehicles and sped up the road to the murder scene.

Charlie Spencer is a one-lane gravel road that rises up from N.C. 16 North less than a mile from the Virginia state line. It parallels the N.C.-Virginia state line for some distance and eventually crosses it a quarter-mile from its western end. Besides those of the Hudlers, only one other home sits along the road.

The investigation is ongoing and the Virginia State Police have set up a command post and will take tips in reference to the case at (800) 782-7764.

The Hudler family had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers, but Vaughan said no one would collect the reward for Hammer's arrest, saying it had come in part from interviews with the Hudler family, but “the majority of the leads came from pure investigative work.”