Earl Conrad Bramblett (March 20, 1942 – April 9, 2003) was an American mass murderer, convicted for the killing of four members of the Hodges family in August 1994 in Vinton, Virginia.
Gaining entry, authorities found 37-year-old Teresa Lynn Hodges' body on a couch, still burning—she had been strangled and doused with diesel fuel.
[2] On the second floor, they discovered William Blaine Hodges (aged 41) dead on a bed next to a .22 caliber gun with the barrel removed, shot through his left temple, but not burned.
Police requested an interview with Bramblett, during which they told him the family had died in a fire, without mentioning the evidence of violence.
[1] Drawings of stick figures with arrows that corresponded to the Hodges' bullet wounds were found at Bramblett's place of employment.
[4] Bramblett's sister provided police with a box he had left with her, which contained several audiotapes in which he spoke of his sexual attraction to 11-year-old Winter Hodges, and of his belief that the family, including Winter, was conspiring to set him up for child molestation charges in the hopes of earning enough money from the case to pay the restitution Blaine (whom he referred to as "backstabbing" and "cheap") owed.
[3] A pair of Lane Bryant jeans were found soaking at his place of employment, discovered by another employee after noticing water leaking through the door, and were determined to contain stains of the same flammable liquid used to start the fire at the Hodges's home.
Bramblett reportedly told friends that he wished he had not "hurt Tammy" three years after she went missing, though he was never charged in either Akers's or Rader's disappearances and their whereabouts are still unknown.