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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 1, 1992                   TAG: 9112310336
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: Kevin Kittredge
DATELINE: GOLDBOND                                LENGTH: Medium

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NAMES IN '91

Billy Williams has become a celebrity since word got out he turned down $25,000.

Williams was the hunter who found the remains of missing Virginia Tech student Andrea Walnes in a laurel thicket.

Despite his financial need - Williams' uninsured house had burned down late in 1989, and he was living with in-laws - he turned down the hefty reward.

"My conscience just wouldn't let me do it," Williams said.

Williams found the murdered student's remains while hunting near his home in Giles County Nov. 1.

"The day I came out of the woods, I came out with the same thing I went in with," he said. "I feel I'm none the poorer."

The money was split instead between a $15,000 reward fund for the arrest of Walnes' killer, and a $10,000 scholarship fund in her name.

Williams, meanwhile, appeared in newspapers and on television.

And since then, he has been deluged with letters and phone calls from people congratulating him for turning down the reward.

Some, who had read that Williams and his family were struggling to make ends meet, sent small amounts of cash. A man in Norfolk sent a video cassette recorder.

A woman wrote a poem about him. Three women from Blacksburg - nearly an hour's drive away - dropped by to wish him well.

Williams, a factory worker who lives in high country miles from the nearest town, was overwhelmed by it all.

"It's really been tremendous. We appreciate everything people have done," he said. "It's been quite an experience."

Williams, 49, said perhaps 25 letters from as far away as Hampton have found him in Giles County. There may have been more sent - but finding Williams, who lives deep in the mountains with his wife's parents, isn't easy.

Letters for him came to at least two other Billy Williamses, to the Giles County Sheriff's Office, and to Williams' church, which was mentioned in a newspaper article.

"Mail went everywhere," Williams said. He said he answered all that came his way.

He also accepted the gifts - including the VCR.

"People wanted to do something. They do that. We didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings," Williams said.

Keywords:
YEAR 1991

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