Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Robert Phillips owns a roofing supply store in Covington, near the apartment of shooting suspect Beacher Hackney. Phillips said he never spoke to Hackney, but would see him when he parked his vehicle along the street as he came and went.

Beacher Hackney lived in this building in the 100 block of East Pine Street in Covington. His entrance was on the side along South Highland Avenue.

Ray Wright, a groundskeeper at The Homestead in Hot Springs, knew both the victims and the accused in Saturday's shootings. Of suspect Beacher Hackney he said, "You'd talk, and then he was gone. He was ready to go back to work."

Dorothy "Dot" Rhodes lives on Pine Street in Covington and points to the building where Beacher Hackney had rented an apartment for several months. She said that she didn't know him.

Nancy Hodge (left) and Hilda Hansford work at Hot Springs Pharmacy. Both women knew Ronnie Stinnett, one of the victims of Saturday night's double fatal shooting at The Homestead resort.

HOT SPRINGS -- As co-workers at The Homestead, Ronnie Stinnett and Dwight Kerr took different paths in life that led them to the kitchen of the luxury resort.

Stinnett was a lifelong resident of rural Bath County, having decided years ago that he had no desire to leave the land he loved to hunt and fish. He built a house on his parents' property and landed a good job at The Homestead, where his mother once worked as a florist.

Kerr was from Jamaica. He came to the United States in 2003 as part of a work exchange program at the hotel. The job allowed him to send money back to his two children in the Caribbean.

Both men were working in The Homestead's kitchen Saturday night when, according to authorities, they were shot and killed by Beacher F. Hackney, an employee they supervised.

Hackney fled on foot after the shootings. He is wanted on a charge of capital murder.

Authorities on Monday scaled back but continued the search for Hackney, 59. Investigators are beginning to doubt that he is still nearby.

"The longer this goes on, the less likely it is he's in the area," said Capt. R.L. Armstrong with the Bath County Sheriff's Office. "Indications are that he's moved on, but anything's possible."

The victims' family members recalled two men with totally different backgrounds -- but a common work ethic and shared respect from friends and colleagues.

The youngest of three brothers, Stinnett was the only one to stick around after high school.

"Ronnie would have never left Hot Springs," said his brother Jerry Stinnett of Lynchburg. "He was one of the few who was born there, raised there and chose to stay there."

When he talked to his brother for the last time, just two days before the shootings, Jerry Stinnett told him he had just met a man on business in Arkansas who was thinking about moving to Bath County.

Ronnie Stinnett offered to take the man out on his boat to fish for bass at Lake Moomaw.

"That's the kind of individual that Ronnie was," Jerry Stinnett said. "He would just reach out to anyone. He never had a bad word to say about anybody. If it wasn't good, he wouldn't say it."

The only time Ronnie Stinnett, 60, lived away from Bath County was when he was stationed in Canada for the U.S. Air Force. After getting laid off from a factory job 25 years ago, Stinnett found work at The Homestead as a steward, cleaning and washing dishes in the kitchen.

From there, he worked his way up to a supervisor's position, his brother said.

The Homestead has always been a part of the Stinnett family. Ronnie Stinnett's late mother worked there for years in her florist job. Stinnett was executive steward at the time of his death, and his son also worked at the resort as a security guard.

Attempts to reach Michael Stinnett -- who reportedly was working Saturday night and rushed to the scene of the shooting before realizing his father was a victim -- were unsuccessful.

Over the past two days, Jerry Stinnett, said his telephone has been ringing constantly, with friends and co-workers saying how much they respected his brother.

"Everybody tells us that everybody loved Ronnie," he said.

Similar accounts were being delivered to the family of Kerr, who was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Kerr, 31, had been in the United States consistently since 2003 as part of a work exchange program for The Homestead, his ex-wife Misty Kerr said. Although police identified him as a supervisor in the kitchen, additional details about his job were not available.

Kerr has two teenage children living in Jamaica with his mother, Misty Kerr said. She said that she and Dwight Kerr were married in December 2003. Their divorce was finalized last May but they remained friends and talked regularly, she said. The last time she talked to him was two weeks ago.

"We were talking about taxes," she said. "I can't believe this happened. When I would call into the kitchen, you could hear people in the background. They would be talking and laughing."

Misty Kerr said her ex-husband was living in America to provide for his two children living in Jamaica. He would regularly send money to them and visit. She said he never mentioned Beacher Hackney and she had never known Kerr to have any problems in the workplace.

"He [Kerr] was a really good person," Misty Kerr said. "I don't think you could find one person who could say anything bad about him."

Not much is known about Hackney, who was described by several people as quiet.

Armstrong said that by all accounts, Hackney was a loner.

"If he spoke at all, it was just to say hello," he said. "He didn't seek conversation."

Authorities have searched Hackney's red and white Chevrolet Blazer, which was parked at the resort and towed to the Bath County Sheriff's Office. There was nothing in the vehicle -- not even the usual clutter, such as coins or receipts, or even the vehicle's registration, Armstrong said.

A search of Hackney's apartment on East Pine Street in Covington also did not turn up anything to help investigators.

Hackney's landlord, Vaughn Roberts, said Hackney had moved into the upstairs apartment four or five months ago.

"No one even knew he was living up there because he was so quiet," Roberts said.

He described the apartment as being as "clean as a pin," with just the bare essentials.

Around the town of Hot Springs, people were resuming their usual business Monday, although schools in Bath and Alleghany counties and Covington were closed because of the manhunt. They are scheduled to reopen today.

"I think everybody was really afraid" after the shootings, said Ellen Hodge, a clerk at the Duck In convenience store. "A lot of people stayed in."

The small town was in motion Monday as residents took packages and letters to the post office, went out for lunch and picked up prescriptions at the local pharmacy. Tourists lunched outside a Subway sandwich shop, and children ran around on a playground on The Homestead property.

"Things are pretty much back to normal this morning," Hodge said.

Staff researcher Belinda Harris and staff writer Neil Harvey contributed to this report.