In the fall of 1977, a shadow of fear fell over southwestern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio as a string of brutal and seemingly random murders plagued the region. On September 20th of that year, this wave of violence tragically entered the home of David A. Hamilton, a 28-year-old White male, in Beaver Township. David, an electrician, was found shot to death in his residence, the victim of a. 38-caliber firearm. The initial horror of the discovery was compounded by another disturbing fact: his wife, 28-year-old Linda Hamilton, was missing. Their two young children were found in the house, physically unharmed, having apparently slept through the terrifying ordeal that claimed their father's life.
In the early stages of the investigation, the absence of Linda led law enforcement to consider her a suspect in her husband's death, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. However, this theory was soon eclipsed by a more sinister possibility when the family's car was discovered near a truck stop where Linda worked. Investigators found a man's bootprint alongside a woman's bare footprints showing drag marks, suggesting Linda had been forcibly taken from the vehicle. The case took a significant turn when ballistics testing connected the gun used to kill David Hamilton to the murder of a milk truck driver, Frank Ziegler, who was found shot to death a week later in Marshall Township, Pennsylvania. This link suggested that a serial killer was at large, instilling a deep sense of unease throughout the communities.
The rash of unsolved homicides prompted a concerted law enforcement effort to identify the perpetrator. The breakthrough came in June 1978 when Edward Arthur Surratt, a long-haul trucker from Aliquippa, was identified as a suspect after being spotted driving the car of a murder victim from South Carolina. Surratt managed to escape apprehension initially but was captured in Florida on July 1, 1978, after breaking into a home and assaulting a family. He was subsequently tried and convicted in Florida, receiving multiple life sentences for his crimes there.
For decades, the murder of David Hamilton and the disappearance of his wife remained officially unsolved, one of many cold cases that haunted the region. Then, in 2007, while incarcerated in Florida, Edward Surratt confessed to a number of murders, including that of David and Linda Hamilton. Despite his confession, Surratt was never tried for the murders in Pennsylvania or Ohio due to his existing life sentences in Florida and South Carolina. Linda Hamilton's body has never been recovered.
