JEFFERSON, Wis. -- Prosecutors have charged a Kentucky man with killing two high school sweethearts who disappeared from a Wisconsin wedding reception nearly 30 years ago.

Edward W. Edwards, 76, of Louisville, Ky., faces two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Tim Hack and Kelly Drew, who were both 19. Wisconsin investigators arrested Edwards Thursday afternoon in Louisville. Jefferson County District Attorney Susan V. Happ filed the charges later that day.

The slayings have haunted Jefferson County for almost three decades. Deputies congratulated Sheriff Paul Milbrath as he arrived for work Friday morning.

Drew's mother, 70-year-old Norma Walker, said she was shocked when Milbrath came to her home Thursday night and told her about the arrest. She said she stopped trusting people after the killings, even to the point of avoiding crowds.

Instead of bringing closure, the arrest has only torn open old wounds, she said. She doesn't want to hear any details of the slayings, and she's dreading a trial.

"You hope this day

Advertisement

would come, but now that it's here, it's really hard. Everything starts all over again. All the memories come back," she said. "He robbed me of my daughter, robbed me of Christmases, birthdays, weddings, everything families do together."

Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Corrections online records showed Friday that Edwards was in custody and he did not yet have an attorney. He was scheduled to be arraigned this morning on a fugitive warrant.

According to the criminal complaint, Hack's father reported Hack and Drew missing on the morning of Aug. 10, 1980. He told deputies the couple had gone to a wedding reception at the Concord House in Sullivan, a town about 40 miles west of Milwaukee.

The two were last seen leaving the reception around 11 p.m. Hack's father found Hack's car in the Concord House parking lot the next morning, still locked with Hack's wallet inside.

Searchers combed the countryside for two months. A week after the couple disappeared, they found Drew's pants, bra and underwear in the road about within 5 miles of the Concord House. The garments had been cut apart.

In October 1980, hunters found Drew's body in the woods about eight miles from the Concord House. The next day searchers found Hack's body in the same area.

Over the years, investigators learned Edwards had worked as a handyman at the Concord House and campgrounds next to the hall.