On June 22, 1984, a 19-year-old woman, identified as A.N., and her boyfriend got lost in the dark while driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Nelson County, Virginia. They pulled onto an overlook, parked their car and decided to go to sleep. A few hours later, a man in camouflage pants ordered them to open the door and pulled out a pistol.
The man ordered the boyfriend to run into the woods or he would be shot. The boyfriend obeyed. The man then ordered A.N. into his truck, and drove about two miles down the parkway to an uninhabited cabin. The man put a sleeping bag on the tailgate of his truck and sexually assaulted A.N. several times. At times, he paused to smoke cigarettes and talk about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam.
After about two hours, the man left, telling A.N. to walk back to her car. A.N. reached her car at about 5:45 a.m.. two hours after she was raped. By then, her boyfriend was there with police officers.
A.N. was taken to a hospital where a rape kit was taken. She told the police that she was unable to make out the facial features of her assailant.
The Nelson County Sheriff’s Office created a composite sketch based upon descriptions given by the boyfriend and the victim. They described the attacker as a man of about 34 or 35 years old, about 6 feet 4 inches tall, with a mustache, a double chin, dark brown hair, and left-handed.
In October 1984, Nelson County sheriff’s officers showed the victim and her boyfriend a photographic lineup that included a photograph of 33-year-old Edward Honaker. Both identified Honaker. The police subsequently executed a search warrant on Honaker’s truck, his mother’s home and a storage facility used by his brother. The police impounded Honaker’s truck, along with a blue sleeping bag, a camouflage suit and jacket, a bullet and a crucifix.
On October 29, 1984, Honaker was arrested on the charges of rape, abduction and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
A preliminary hearing was held on November 14, 1984 in Nelson County Circuit Court. Before the hearing began, Honaker was seated in the courtroom along with 24 other men. The police brought A.N. and her boyfriend separately into the courtroom. Both identified Honaker as the perpetrator.
At the conclusion of the hearing, based on their identification of Honaker, the judge found probable cause to hold him on the charges. Soon after, a Nelson County grand jury indicted Honaker on two counts of rape, one count of forcible sodomy, one count of aggravated sexual battery, one count of abduction and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Honaker went to trial in Nelson County Circuit Court in February 1985. A.N. and her boyfriend both identified him as the perpetrator.
Nelson County Sheriff’s Deputy Russell Hill testified that he had sent a copy of the composite sketch to numerous police agencies. He said that police in Roanoke, about 90 miles away, had informed him that the sketch resembled Honaker, who was under investigation there.
In fact, a woman who was sexually assaulted in Roanoke had told police that her attacker resembled Honaker. However, he was not charged because he was able to show that he was elsewhere at the time of the time.
The defense requested a mistrial based on that testimony, but the motion was denied.
Elmer Gist, a scientist with the Virginia Division of Forensic Science, testified that he examined the rape kit as well as a pair of shorts and blouse worn by A.N., two cigarette butts found at the scene of the crime, a match stem, two pieces of cloth, and a sleeping bag. He also examined pants and a shirt, blankets, a jacket, and a pillow case from Honaker’s home, along with vacuum sweepings from Honaker’s truck. In addition, he said he examined blood and hair samples from the victim, her boyfriend, and Honaker.
Gist testified that spermatozoa were found on the slides from the vaginal swabs taken from the victim. He also said that one Caucasian hair and two Caucasian hair fragments were found. Gist testified that hairs found on the victim’s shorts matched those taken from Honaker. He said that it “is unlikely that the hair would match anyone other than the defendant, but it is possible.”
Gist said that Honaker had type B blood and that A.N. had type O blood. Gist said that saliva on the cigarette butts were found to have been left by an individual with type O blood.
Bobby Honaker, Honaker’s brother, testified that from 8:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. on the night of the crime Honaker was at his house. Wanda Dillon, Bobby Honaker’s neighbor, testified that she saw Honaker at Bobby’s house at that time.
William Beverly, the boyfriend of Honaker’s mother, lived with Honaker and his mother and testified that at 1:00 a.m. Honaker returned to the house and remained there throughout the rest of the night.
Honaker, who was 5 feet 11 inches tall and right-handed, testified and denied committing the crime. He said that he had had a vasectomy and was unable to produce sperm.
On February 7, 1985, Honaker was convicted of two counts of rape, one count of forcible sodomy, one count of aggravated sexual battery, one count of abduction and two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was sentenced to three life sentences and thirty-four years.
After his conviction, Honaker reached out to Centurion Ministries, a nonprofit organization in New Jersey that worked to free the wrongfully convicted.
Centurion discovered that the victim and her boyfriend had been hypnotized prior to their identifications of Honaker. Centurion then began working with the Innocence Project to secure DNA testing of the biological evidence in the case.
The prosecution agreed to release the evidence, which included sperm on the vaginal swab, though it asserted that the sperm belonged to A.N.’s boyfriend.
The evidence was sent to Forensics Science Associates, a DNA laboratory in Richmond, California. Initial testing, using DQ Alpha testing, revealed that sperm from the victim’s shorts and from the vaginal swab did not match, but Honaker was excluded from both profiles. At that point, A.N. disclosed she had another boyfriend. After two more rounds of testing, Honaker and both of A.N.’s boyfriends were excluded.
Based on the DNA exclusion, Honaker filed for clemency. His petition was supported by the prosecution. When confronted with the fact that Honaker had undergone a vasectomy, the prosecution’s forensic expert said that had he known that information, he would not have testified to the hair match.
On October 22, 1994, Governor George Allen pardoned Honaker on the basis of actual innocence and released from prison
In 1996, Honaker was awarded $500,000 from the state of Virginia for his wrongful incarceration. He died of cancer in June 2015.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 02-16-2026
