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Randall Lee Smith, the man who was suspected of shooting two campers on the Appalachian Trail Tuesday evening, died Saturday evening after being found unresponsive in his jail cell. According to authorities, Smith, 54, was found unresponsive around 5 p.m. by officers with the New River Valley Regional Jail. He was transported to the hospital, where he died about an hour later.
Smith, who lived in Pearisburg, was alone in his cell and there were no external signs of suicide. Smith was released from Roanoke Memorial Hospital Friday. He was taken to RMH Tuesday night after crashing a vehicle he had stolen from one of the campers he had shot. He was on a ventilator till Thursday. He was charged Friday evening by the Giles County Sheriff's Department with two counts of attempted capital murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, possession of firearm by a convicted felon and grand larceny. He was being held without bond at the NRV Regional Jail. Smith was convicted in 1982 for the murder of two hikers from Maine in May of 1981 on the Appalachian Trail. Tuesday's shootings took place about two miles from the 1981 murders. He served 15 years of a 30-year sentence and was released on parole in 1996. Smith's body will be taken to the medical examiner's office in Roanoke for an autospy.
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