Photos by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Lt. Tim Dunnagan (above) says he will find Beacher Hackney before he retires. After her husband was killed, Janet Stinnett (left) and her son stopped working at The Homestead. "It was too much," she said.

Photos by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Lt. Tim Dunnagan (above) says he will find Beacher Hackney before he retires. After her husband was killed, Janet Stinnett (left) and her son stopped working at The Homestead. "It was too much," she said.

Janet and Michael Stinnett have supported each other through anniversaries and birthdays. "If it weren't for Mike, I don't know how I would have made it through all this," Janet said.

Photos by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Michael Stinnett holds a photo of his father, Ronnie Stinnett, taken during his earlier years. After the shooting, Michael has stepped in to fix things around the house — things his dad always did.

HOT SPRINGS -- Lt. Tim Dunnagan says he is waiting for that phone call that makes the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

That caller will describe Beacher Hackney with such detail that Dunnagan will know they've finally found the accused killer.

But until that day, Hackney's wanted poster will hang over Dunnagan's desk at the Bath County Sheriff's Office, a constant reminder that Hackney is still on the run.

"I'm going to catch this guy," Dunnagan said. "He's got to pay for what he's done."

Hackney, 59, is accused of fatally shooting his two supervisors at The Homestead resort on March 21. Ronnie Stinnett, 60, and Dwight Kerr, 39, were shot dead as they worked in the resort's kitchen.

No one has reported seeing Hackney since then. In the days after the shootings, the sheriff's office searched for him with helicopters and dogs. They interviewed his family, and looked at surveillance videos.

As investigators continue following leads, the victims' families are trying to move past their loss. Stinnett's son, Michael, and wife, Janet, both quit their jobs at the resort, and Michael is in school to become a police officer. Kerr's wife, Kimberly, is also taking classes and raising their young daughter by herself.

The families keep in touch, and have gone to the national media with their pleas for the public's help to find Hackney.

In October, "America's Most Wanted" aired a segment about the killings that featured Michael Stinnett and Kimberly Kerr.

Dunnagan -- the sheriff's office's sole investigator -- traveled to Washington to the show's call center with a state trooper and a U.S. marshal to take tips after the show aired. They received more than 20 leads.

One caller said they'd seen someone who looked like Hackney at a Walmart in Texas. Another said they'd seen a man who fit the description driving a Lincoln in Maryland.

But investigators haven't found a trace of him.

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Hackney's family has told investigators that they haven't got a clue where he is, Dunnagan said. Investigators are in the process of interviewing them again.

"He's out there somewhere and somebody's helping him," Dunnagan said. "Once we find him, they'll be prosecuted, too."

The low profile Hackney kept in the six years he worked at the resort has helped him stay well hidden, Dunnagan said.

By all accounts, Hackney was a loner who kept quiet and even ignored those around him.

Dunnagan said it is easy to see how he could lie low for so long.

"What we like to have in our life -- material things-- he doesn't need," Dunnagan said. "That's his way of life."

When investigators searched Hackney's Covington apartment after the killings, they found it sparse. Even the vehicle he drove to The Homestead just before the shootings was empty. There wasn't even a penny on the floorboard, Dunnagan said.

Hackney's disappearance has put the Stinnett family on edge.

"We keep our doors locked now," said Janet Stinnett, Ronnie's widow. "We never did before."

The couple's son, Michael, 30, was working as a security guard at the resort the night of the shooting.

A co-worker began yelling about someone shooting in the kitchen, and Michael Stinnett called the sheriff's office.

By then, people were running out of the building.

"I heard someone scream, 'There he is!' " Stinnett said.

He looked up to see Hackney walking out of the docking bay with something in his hands.

He believes that sirens from the approaching ambulances caused Hackney to flee.

Michael tried to go to the kitchen to help the wounded, but he was stopped by a co-worker who told him his father had been killed.

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Janet and Michael have since both quit their jobs.

"I just couldn't handle it," said Janet, who worked as a night auditor. "People asked questions every day. It was too much."

She isn't working, but is considering baby-sitting for the Kerrs' 2-year-old daughter.

Michael is continuing his classes at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College in Clifton Forge, where he is pursuing a degree in administration and justice. He has always wanted to be a police officer, and already has a license to do private investigations.

Together, the mother and son have supported each other through anniversaries and birthdays.

"If it weren't for Mike, I don't know how I would have made it through all this," Janet said. "Ronnie was my life, and that man just took it away from us."

Michael has had to learn how to fix things around the house and take care of the yard -- things his dad always did. And Janet, for the first time, found herself paying bills and dealing with the insurance company.

She and Ronnie had been looking forward to his retirement next year. They'd bought a camper and planned to take it cross-country. Now, the camper is parked at nearby Peaceful River, where Janet spent many summer days seeking solitude to cope with her grief.

"That man just took everything away from me," she said.

Kimberly Kerr has also found life without her husband difficult. She is raising their daughter, Carmen, by herself.

"Sometimes she'll cry, and I'll ask what's wrong. She says, 'I don't know why daddy's gone,' " Kerr said.

Putting up the Christmas tree this year was particularly emotional, Kerr said, because she thought about how excited Dwight was about the tree last year.

Her biggest worry though, is that Hackney is still out there.

"That's my everyday thought when I wake up and go to bed," she said. "Every day I pray to God, 'Just please let him be apprehended.' "