PEARISBURG, Va.—A man convicted of killing two Maine hikers in Virginia in 1981 and believed to be connected to the shootings of two people last week is dead.
Police say 54-year-old Randall Lee Smith was found lying on his side and unresponsive in his jail cell on Saturday, and was pronounced dead at a Pulaski County hospital. Lt. Ron Hamlin of the Giles County Sheriff's Department says an autopsy was inconclusive.
Smith was arrested last week when he crashed a pickup truck that belonged to one of two men who were killed on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.
The shootings occurred near the same secluded area where Smith killed Susan Ramsay and Robert Mountford Jr. in 1981. Mountford was from Ellsworth; Ramsey was from Mariaville.
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