On April 27, 1996, Kelly Weisner dropped her brother off at a gas station in the Chester Basin, N.S. area. She would be the last family member to see Steven Hall alive, and 21 years later, his murder remains unsolved.
“I pulled up and he got out of the car, looked in and said, ‘See you later sis,’ shut the door, I looked in my rearview mirror, and that was the last I saw of him,” she recalls of the last time she saw her brother.
Weisner, who was 18 at the time, says Hall told her he was planning to hitchhike to his girlfriend’s home in Chester, N.S. which wasn’t unusual for the 21-year-old.
“A couple of days later got a phone call from his girlfriend, asking if we had seen or spoken to him, and that’s when it started cluing in to us that something’s not right,” she says. “You always heard from Steven. You always knew where he was, he was always calling, bugging somebody for something or a ride.”
The family contacted police, who searched the area, handed out flyers and put up posters.
Seven months later; on Nov. 23, 1996, Hall’s remains were found in a wooded area on the Hogg Lot Road, off Highway 14, roughly 13 kilometres north of the Chester, N.S. area.
“At the house, dad and the RCMP officer came in and of course, due to me being the last person to see him or talk to him, I had to identify through Polaroid pictures of his clothing and then it just went from there to in shock,” recalls Weisner.
His death was ruled a homicide, but no arrests have ever been made.
“We’re still here 21 years later, wondering the same questions: why, who, how?” says Weisner.
Hall’s homicide is part of the Nova Scotia Justice Department’s Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program, which offers up to $150,000 for information that leads to a conviction.
Nova Scotia RCMP Insp. Lynn Young says, while more than two decades have passed, police are confident someone knows something, and is optimistic the case can be solved.
“Sometimes people see things like this and they decide they now feel comfortable coming forward and contact the police and say I have information to provide, and we make arrangements to meet,” says Young.
Weisner remains hopeful someone will come forward and help solve the mystery that has haunted her family for 21 years.
“It’s time to lay this to rest, for our family, and for my mom, God rest her soul. She had to leave this world not knowing what happened to him.”
Anyone with information about Hall’s case is asked to contact the RCMP or the Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program at 1-888-710-9090.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Priya Sam
