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When Marietta resident Faye Farmer received a letter in the mail at the end of last month notifying her that Gary Allen Gibson would be released from prison at the start of the new year, she realized that her ongoing fear was about to be reality.
“I am scared to death if this guy gets out,” Farmer said. “I don’t know why he was never indicted.”
Farmer is the sister of the late Cathy Farmer Gill, a 36-year-old mother of five who was raped and murdered in Belpre more than 30 years ago, and she has been fighting for justice for her sister ever since.
Gibson, now 60 years old and serving a life sentence in the Huttonsville Correctional Center in West Virginia for other charges, was implicated in the murder but never convicted.
“I got a letter from the parole board that Gibson would be paroled Jan. 4,” Farmer said on Thursday. “Then they sent me another letter, which I got yesterday, saying they caught him with a controlled substance.”
Gibson, who is serving time for multiple charges of burglary, escape, breaking and entering, manslaughter and recidivism in West Virginia, was the only one of three of the men believed to be involved in Gill’s murder who was never convicted.
At first, an indictment never came through against Gibson because the Washington County Prosecutor’s Office had trouble getting the other two defendants, Richard Starkey and Steve Scott Carmichael, to testify against him, along with other issues, including the fact that Gill’s body was never found.
Gibson’s case was expected to go to a Washington County Grand Jury in 2012 but was never presented.
“I did everything I could to take him to court, but they said because I told people I was subpoenaed (to testify before the grand jury) that it had to be thrown out,” Farmer said. “They said they didn’t have enough evidence, even if the two other men came forward.”
According to reports, Gill asked the three men, all acquaintances, to drive her home after a night out in a Parkersburg bar in 1984. Instead of taking her home, however, the trio allegedly took her to a Belpre apartment, raped her and choked her to death with a broom handle before throwing her body into the Ohio River.
Starkey was convicted of complicity to commit involuntary manslaughter in 1987 and served nearly 20 years before he was released in 2006.
“Starkey slipped through the cracks, but I made him register as a sex offender,” Farmer said. Starkey is registered in Wood County as a sex offender, one thing Farmer had to fight for because Starkey was never convicted of a sex-related crime.
And Carmichael, who was the first of the men to come forward after the crime, has been incarcerated at the Southeastern Ohio Correctional Facility since 1986 for complicity to commit murder.
“He was up for parole in October, but they gave him three more years,” Farmer said.
Farmer said she supports Carmichael’s release, as she believes he has been the most cooperative and could be a big help in bringing charges against Gibson.
Washington County Sheriff’ Office cold case Det. Jeff Seevers worked the Gill case, but said he does not know if a case against Gibson would come forward again in the event that he is paroled in March.
“It became such a problem because the guy was already doing so much time already,” Seevers said. “If the sheriff ever asked us to look at it again, I’d be happy to do it.”
Washington County interim Prosecutor Kevin Rings could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Recently retired prosecutor Jim Schneider noted at the time that a lack of evidence and the difficulty in finding good witnesses that were still around would make the case against Gibson hard to prosecute, along with the fact that her body was never found.
“He (Gibson) is the most dangerous,” Seevers said. “He should never be let out.”
Gibson was originally convicted for killing a fellow inmate back in the 1980s, but the conviction was tossed out in 2008 by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals because the judge at the time improperly required Gibson’s defense witnesses to wear prison clothes and shackles.
Farmer has already helped block Gibson’s parole before, but said she does not know what to do if this could finally be the time he gets out.
“I think they need to indict him before he gets out,” Farmer said. “I don’t want him out and then not have to face what he’s done.”