On February 29, 2012, Betsy Ball vanished from her house in Morgan Township, Gallia County, and was killed.
As soon as David, her husband, got home just after midnight, he noticed strange noises in their garage.
Around 2 AM, he alerted the authorities in Gallia County, Ohio, and reported his wife missing after searching their property but being unable to find her.
On March 1, 2012, they reported Betsy Ball missing, and a few hours later, they found her death in a nearby cornfield.
The body of a 67-year-old woman who had undergone horrific actions such as sexual assault, strangulation, being run over by a car and being doused in petrol was discovered partially undressed.
After finding tyre tracks close to the location of Betsy Ball’s murder, investigators utilised DNA evidence to pin the murderer’s identity on Lee Hawkins, a person the Ball family was familiar with. After his trial, Hawkins was determined to have committed the murder.
In an upcoming episode titled “Field of Bad Dreams,” “Murder in the Heartland” on the ID will revisit the graphic details of the murder of Betsy Ball.
The episode’s summary states that “the grotesque murder of a beloved citizen, Betsy Ball, shatters the quiet farm community of Vinton, Ohio.”
On Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at 9 PM ET, “Murder in the Heartland” had a brand-new episode on the ID channel.
On October 28, 1944, Betsy Lynn George Ball was born in Gallipolis, Gallia County, Ohio.
From a previous marriage, she had five kids with the names David, Brionna, Matt, Mark, and Todd.
According to the literature for the event, Betsy and David Ball were previously married and were acquainted from high school.
Following the breakdown of their separate unions, David pursued Betsy until she finally consented to wed him.
The couple lived in a house in Morgan Township, Gallia County, Ohio, next to their farm for beef cattle.
Betsy was known for her powerful and outspoken demeanour, whereas David was a welder at the Kyger Creek Power Plant. David was reserved and introverted. She was quiet but steadfast in her resolve, and she was confident in every move she made.
She left her son Todd at his house on February 28, 2012, around 2:30 PM.
Todd remarked that his mother needed to take the day off because she was worn out. Sadly, he had no idea that it would be his last encounter with her.
When David returned from work after midnight on February 29 and couldn’t find his wife, he was shocked and reported her missing.
At roughly 2:00 AM, the police received a call, and officers were sent to the area to look for her.
The local people assisted in the search operations because the town was small.
Nobody could have foreseen that the horrifying evidence of Betsy Ball’s murder would lead to the end of the search.
The next day, a bit further from their house, they discovered her body in a field.
Her cause of death was determined by an autopsy to be strangling.
The day of Betsy Ball’s murder, March 1, 2012, David had left his double shift at the Kyger Creek Power Plant approximately 12:05 AM, according to the police investigation.
Upon entering his home, he noticed a number of odd things, including a garage disturbance where tools and other items had been relocated.
He also discovered several scuffs on the hood, a shoe beneath his wife’s Subaru, and a piece of cloth on the car.
David was alarmed when he saw Betsy’s spectacles and mobile on the Subaru’s floorboard behind the passenger seat.
David looked around his house and garage and saw the weird activities, so he reported a missing person to the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation launched an immediate investigation into Betsy’s disappearance after receiving the report.
They found Betsy Ball’s body around midday on 1 March in a lonely field along a dirt road in rural Gallia County, roughly six minutes’ drive from the Ball home. The body of Betsy was half covered, and her legs were uncrossed.
Her partially dressed body was discovered with bruises and scrapes on her arms and face, and the autopsy report in the murder case of Betsy Ball indicated that she had been raped.
Along with a major incision on her abdomen, she also had ligature furrows on her neck, wrists, and skin. She also had tyre prints over her body, indicating that she had been struck by a car.
Additionally, the murderer doused her body in petrol. According to the autopsy report, strangling was the main factor in Betsy Ball’s death.
The detectives conducted a comprehensive examination of the area and discovered significant pieces of evidence.
Visible tyre tracks were detected leading from the gravel road to the location of the body and returning to the road.
The marks, however, gave police a crucial tip that allowed them to identify the involved vehicle’s two all-terrain front tyres and two mudder rear tyres.
Officers also discovered a hand towel from the Betsy Ball murder scene that was partially discoloured and covered in human fluids.
The Bidwell homeowner Lee A. Hawkins, whose Ford F-150 pickup vehicle had tyres identical to those discovered at the crime site, attracted the attention of the authorities.
The Balls had known Hawkins for about 20 years and he had previously worked as a farmhand for them.
The investigators found evidence that Hawkins knew Betsy would be home alone on February 29 and was aware of David’s work schedule.
Throughout the course of the interview in the Betsy Ball murder case, his story kept changing.
He was later charged with aggravated assassination, disturbed burglary, and gross abuse of a corpse after he admitted to killing Betsy Ball.
In accordance with his confession, Hawkins entered the Ball home on February 28, 2012, the day Betsy Ball was killed, with the intent to steal money.
But when Betsy confronted him, he punched her in the face, strangled her with a cord, and then abused her corpse in a sexual way.
Later, he carried her body into his truck, draped it in a tarp, and went to a remote location where he lit it on fire.
He attempted to hide the evidence by repeatedly running over the body with his truck after realising that the fire would not be able to completely destroy it.
Lee was found guilty on all counts and given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The Ball home and the outside crime scene were both examined by forensic experts, who discovered evidence connecting Lee to both.
Inside the garage, they discovered his fingerprints all over Betsy’s Subaru.
They discovered a mixture of Lee’s semen and Betsy’s blood when they tested the partial hand towel that was located at the Betsy Ball murder scene.
In addition, despite Lee’s denials, the medical team’s examination of a vaginal sample revealed Lee’s semen, establishing his involvement.
Authorities accused Lee of aggravated murder, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, and the murder of Betsy Ball on March 15, 2012.
In October of that year, he was given a life sentence without the possibility of release as well as an extra 36 months in prison for tampering with evidence.
The prosecution’s costs were also ordered to be paid by him by the court. In 2015, Lee appealed his sentence; however, the Ohio Supreme Court denied his request.
He is currently 58 years old and incarcerated at the Pickaway Correctional Institution, according to official court records.