On the evening of January 16, 1967, Donna Jean Ball, an 18-year-old woman, was driving home from her job as a telephone operator for C&P Telephone near Ceredo, West Virginia. It was a routine drive that turned into a nightmare when another vehicle, a 1958 Chevrolet, began to pursue her along West Virginia Route 75 and ultimately forced her car off the road.
The man behind the wheel would later be identified as Eugene Blake, a 21-year-old truck driver who had recently received a suspended sentence for burglary.
The assailant stopped his car, approached Donna’s vehicle, and demanded money. After she handed over what she had, Blake brutally attacked her, stabbing her eight times in the chest and face. Despite the severity of her wounds, Donna fought for her life. She managed to escape her car and run down the road, where she was spotted by two neighbors, Kenny Ward and Dallas Campbell. The two men rushed to her aid, picked her up, and alerted the police.
Ward and Campbell then went back to Donna's car in an attempt to confront her attacker, but Blake sped away before they could reach him. Donna's family was notified, and she was rushed to Cabell Huntington Hospital. Tragically, her injuries were too grave, and she was pronounced dead on arrival. The brutal and seemingly random nature of the crime sent a shockwave through the quiet community.
The investigation moved swiftly. Based on the description provided, police arrested Eugene Blake the very next day and charged him with Donna’s murder. The evidence against him was strong, and he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He appealed the conviction, arguing he had not received a fair trial, but the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the verdict. Blake was incarcerated at the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville.
While in prison, Blake was described as a model inmate, earning the trust of guards. This good behavior led to a controversial decision in 1976 when West Virginia Governor Arch A. Moore Jr. commuted his sentence to life with the possibility of parole. In February 1979, after serving just over a decade for Donna’s murder, Eugene Blake was released from prison.
Blake’s release would have devastating consequences. In March 1982, he murdered 21-year-old Mark Withers in Bridgeport, Ohio, and sexually assaulted his 17-year-old female companion. Two years later, in October 1984, he abducted, raped, and murdered 13-year-old Maryann Hope Helmbright in Osage, West Virginia. For years, the murder of Mark Withers remained a cold case, but Blake was eventually convicted of killing Maryann Helmbright in 1997.
It wasn't until 2008 that advancements in DNA technology definitively linked Blake to the 1982 murder of Mark Withers. He was extradited to Ohio, where he pleaded guilty to aggravated murder to avoid a potential death sentence and received another life sentence. The story of Eugene Blake is a chilling example of a justice system’s decision that allowed a killer to take more innocent lives, a tragedy that began with the senseless and brutal murder of Donna Jean Ball on a cold January night. Blake's parole application was denied in 2022, with his next eligibility scheduled for 2032.
