Tragedy that began over three decades ago receives closure
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
PILGRIM — Ruvil Hale of Pilgrim will finally be laid to rest Sunday. A family tragedy that began over three decades ago has finally received closure.
Hale’s family announced that the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort confirmed Friday that remains recovered March 18, 2022, from Dewey Lake are those of Hale.
Hale disappeared July 3, 1990, from the Paintsville Health Care Center, a nursing home in Johnson County. He had been a coal miner for Peter Cave Coal Company until an injury rendered him unable to work. He suffered from a stroke and seizures and was being treated for a brain aneurysm at the time of his disappearance.
On the same day Ruvil disappeared, a Ford Tempo was reported missing from the parking lot of Druthers Restaurant beside the nursing home.
Law enforcement conducted aerial and ground searches over the next three days, scouring a 20-mile radius. They concentrated a considerable amount of time searching on the southern end of Johnson County. They searched roadways, strip jobs, ponds, rivers, Dewey Lake, Paintsville Lake, side roads, even his homeplace in Pilgrim.
KSP advised that they searched every location accessible by car and turned up nothing.
Hale was legally declared dead in 1996.
On March 18, 2022, the vehicle that disappeared from the Druthers Restaurant parking lot was discovered submerged in Dewey Lake off WaterGap Road in Floyd County. Remains found in the car were sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office
Hale was born Jan. 27, 1947, in Martin County and was the son of the late Ernest and Florence Hale. In addition to his parents, he had three siblings who have passed away since his disappearance: Sherman Hale, Connie Hale and Mary Hale.
Hale is survived by his wife, Catheline Hale of Killen, Ala.; two sons, Max Hale and wife Mandy of Pilgrim and Keith Hale and wife Melissa of Glasgow; four grandchildren, Ryan Hale, Rena Hale, Kaylyn Hale and Khloe Hale, and one great-granddaughter, Mattilyn Hammonds. He is also survived by his siblings, Ernest (Marcie) Hale Jr., Eddie (Lory) Hale, Edith (Bob) Collins, Betty Hale, Janice (Tom) Hayes, Elva (Steve) Smith and Linda Muncy, and a host of nieces and nephews.
There will be a graveside service at 1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023, at the Hale Family Cemetery in Pilgrim, with Terry Harmon officiating.