Gilbert and Ethel Kidd built their retirement home in rural Burr Hill, Virginia, in 1988. The quaint area was perfect for the unassuming couple as it is seventy miles from Capitol Hill, secluded from the chaos of Washington, D.C. In addition, the location was perfect for the Kidds in that it was less than a mile from the home of their eldest kid, JoAnn, and her eight-year-old daughter.

The parents of five children, Gilbert and Ethel expected to spend most of their retirement doting over their grandchildren and enjoying many years in their dream home. Instead, after living in the home for only a few months, the dream ended in a nightmare.

Sixty-one-year-old Ethel Kidd was last seen on the afternoon of April 12, 1989. Her body was discovered eight days later, purposefully displayed in a macabre manner. Her killer was brazen, taunting investigators as if he were saying “catch me if you can.”

It took six years, but with the help of an alert television viewer, authorities caught the killer of Ethel Kidd.

Ethel Kidd

The morning of April 12, 1989, began as any other. Ethel visited JoAnn for a few hours then returned home. A neighbor saw her getting her mail at approximately 2:00 p.m. Gilbert was out of town in Alexandria, seventy miles away, at the time.

Mom and daughter had planned a repeat for the following morning. JoAnn was not overly concerned after her mother did not arrive as scheduled; Ethel occasionally cleaned the homes of several area residents and JoAnn thought one of them had enlisted her mother’s services that morning.  After learning none had, however, her concern grew and further escalated as she was unable to reach her by mom by phone.

No Ethel

At 9:30, JoAnn asked her husband, Thomas Kidd, to check on Ethel on his way home. Thomas was a cousin of Ethel’s widowed second husband.

Upon arrival at his mother-in-law’s home, Thomas found an atlas lying in the yard and was alarmed to find the front door to the home unlocked. Everything in the house was in place, but he found so sign of Ethel.

Thomas Kidd

Ethel’s Son-In-Law

Police combed the acres and fields surrounding Ethel’s home by land and air, but to no avail.

Ethel’s Home

Eight days later and less than three miles from Ethel’s home, a local turkey hunter came upon a gruesome scene as he found her body tied to a tree in an upright position. The locale was a wooded area which had been searched the previous week.

An autopsy determined Ethel had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. The medical examiner believed she had been killed within a day after she was last seen on April 12. Her body showed no signs of decomposition, leading the medical examiner to believe she had been kept in cold storage after she had been killed, perhaps in an insect-free, climate-controlled condition, a refrigerated truck, an ice house, or a walk-in freezer.

Ethel had also been bound with a drapery chord used in hotels and hospitals but not available to the general public. Car upholstery fibers consistent with those found in a 1970s model Chrysler were found on her clothes.

Investigators are certain Ethel’s body had not been at the location where the hunter found her when they had searched the area the previous week. They believe her killer brought her body to the locale knowing it had already been searched as a means of taunting them.

Ethel’s Body Is Found

Several items were tucked inside the atlas Thomas had found in Ethel’s yard. Sexually suggestive messages were written on two sheets of paper from national motel chains. Investigators surmise the note cards may have been used as flashcards to solicit sex along the nearby interstate.

Also found in the atlas was a handwritten list of several items which police believed was the killer’s blueprint for murder:

• Number 2 listed clothing and accessories which may have been used for a disguise.
• Number 3 read “I.D. (ASAP) Paper Trip book).” Authorities believe the notation was in reference to The Paper Trip, a book describing how a person can obtain a new identity.
• Item 4 simply read “choose location.”
• Item 5 read “H.C.”/ Tp/SG.” Police believe the items referenced were handcuffs, tape, and either surgical gloves or a stun gun.

The blueprint for murder proved the killer’s undoing.

The Killer’s List

Unsolved Mysteries profiled Ethel Kidd’s murder several times. When the segment re-ran on Lifetime in 1995, a viewer contacted the show saying he believed he recognized the handwriting in the letter.

Handwriting analysis confirmed the caller’s suspicion as the writing matched that of Edward Beverly, who was imprisoned for burglary and armed robbery of a post office in Nashville, Tennessee. He was scheduled to be released in a few months.

DNA tests confirmed Beverly had raped Ethel Kidd and his fingerprints were matched to those found at the crime scene. Two of his nephews identified the atlas found in Ethel’s yard as the one they often saw in their uncle’s car.

Beverly had lived in Burr Hill at the time of the murder but had moved out of the area shortly thereafter. While Ethel was doing yard work outside her home, authorities believe he approached her with an atlas under the pretense of being lost and asking for directions. He then proceeded to kidnap, rape, and murder her.

Edward Beverly was convicted of the murder of Ethel Kidd and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He died of cancer in 2008.

Edward Beverly

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71318118/ethel-sarah-kidd

SOURCES:

• Culpeper Star-Exponent
• Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Virginia
• Harrisonburg, Virginia Daily News
• Richmond Times Dispatch
• Unsolved Mysteries
• Washington Post