HENRICO, Va. -- Organizers hosted a party in Short Pump, but the two guests of honor were not be in attendance. Friends and family of Mike Margaret and Donna Hall gathered Friday to remember the high school sweethearts in a celebration of life event – 31 years after their murders.
"It was devastating. It was a blow to the entire community," said organizer Blue Hall. "They're going to be in our hearts forever."
The young couple was found brutally murdered in the west end in August of 1984, their killer – or killers -- never caught. Donna was an 18-year-old Freeman High School graduate and Mike, a 21-year-old graduate of Tucker High School.
"This event is the culmination of the community coming together saying we won't forget," Hall said.
For Mike’s brother Scott Margaret, the pain still lingers three decades – and many questions – later.
"I miss him. I miss him a lot,” he said. “And it hurts not to have that future.”
"There is not one day that goes by that I or my sister thinks about this case,” Scott said.
Mike's sister Allyson is touched by the outpouring of love. so many years later.
"It is a blessing that they are all coming together and putting this on and raising money,” Allyson Lucas said. “It means a lot to me.”
Friends hope to solve the cold case of the murder of Donna Hall and Mike Margaret.
Money raised Friday night at the silent auction will go directly to a new reward fund established by the Friedman Law Firm, who donated the first $1,500 of an intended $15,000.
"It warms my heart tremendously that my family has not been alone in this," Scott said.
Organizers vow to remember their friends, who will always be young to them.
"These were two lives that were taken far too early,” said Blue. “Justice needs to be served.”
Within a week the reward fund has raised half of the goal.
People can donate to the reward one of two ways:
1. Make checks payable to:
Friedman Law Firm, P.C Trust
Memo Line (Required) – Donna and Mike
Mail to:
Friedman Law Firm, P.C Trust
9620 Iron Bridge Rd #101
Chesterfield, VA 23832
or
Donna and Mike were last seen alive on August 17, 1984. Their bodies were found stabbed and their throats cut on August 21.
Police can track the couple’s whereabouts every hour from around 4 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. on Friday, August 17, 1984. The last time the couple was seen alive was at an intimate get together with friends – not quite a “party.”
The couple told friends and family they planned to go camping. Their packed suitcases were later found in Mike’s Jeep.
The bodies were discovered in the Henrico woods which once sprawled out along Patterson Avenue, now known as the suburban Kings Crossing division.
The crime is believed to be emotional, detectives said, based on the “overkill” of the couple.
A torrential downpour just hours after the murders wiped away a lot of evidence, police said. A third blood type was found inside the Jeep. The last DNA test they did was in 2006, before that 1987, but no match was made.
This evidence will be resubmitted to the state’s lab.
Their murders have lately come back into the spotlight,with people more readily sharing information three decades later, and as an almost 3,000-member Facebook group aptly called “Justice for Donna Hall and Mike Margaret” crowdsources memories, clues and tips.
If you have any information concerning the murders, please contact Henrico County Detective Thomas Holsinger at 804-501-5276.
