Freddie Hammer confesses to more murders

Freddie Hammer confesses to more murders (Added: January 12, 2012)

Cold case in Tennessee among more than a dozen murders Hammer claims to have now committed in 4 states. (more)

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Frederick "Freddie" Hammer's mugshot from January 2008

By: Scott Leamon | WSLS 10
Published: January 12, 2012
Updated: January 12, 2012 - 6:10 PM

GRAYSON COUNTY, VA --

6:10 p.m.

Ashe County, NC Sheriff James Williams said while Hammer hasn't provided any information to investigators that would only be known to the killer, his "gut feeling" is that Hammer killed Tim Shatley in 2005, and a Tennessee woman missing since 2001.

Sheriff Williams said Hammer has confessed to both murders, and he plans to conduct another search this Spring for the body of Julie Lovett. She's a 29-year-old woman who disappeared from neighboring Johnson County, Tennessee in 2001.

Williams said investigators have linked Hammer to Lovett.

According to investigators, Hammer once told a jail inmate he murdered 17 people.

Sheriff Williams and Grayson County Sheriff Richard Vaughan, confirmed that the investigation into more murders linked to Hammer could spread outside North Carolina and Virginia, into several other states.

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3:05 p.m.

WSLS has learned that the Grayson County Sheriff's Office and the Ashe County, North Carolina Sheriff's Office are in the middle of a joint investigation, into the possibility that Freddie Hammer killed more people.

Hammer is in Wallens Ridge State Prison serving a life sentence for the murders of Grayson County tree farmers, Ron Hudler, his son Frederick Hudler, and the Hudler's employee, John Miller.

All three men were found shot to death on the Hudler's farm in January 2008.

While in prison, Hammer admitted to killing Jimmy Blevins in Ashe County, North Carolina in February of 2007.

Sources have confirmed to 10 On Your Side, that Hammer has admitted to two more unsolved murders in Ashe County, NC, and that information he has provided about the crimes has been "credible" to investigators.

Sources also tell 10 On Your Side that the investigation into Hammer's previous murders could expand beyond Virginia and North Carolina, and could include more than one dozen murders. One of the cases involves a cold case in Johnson County, Tennessee, which borders Grayson County, Virginia.

10 On Your Side's Scott Leamon will have more on this story tonight at 5 and 6 p.m.