20 feet up in the fork of a thick branch of an old oak tree lay an object that shouldn’t have been there. 10 years of dirt, rain, and sun had turned it into a shapeless cocoon, almost blending in with the bark of the tree. It had been there so long that birds had built a nest on its edge.
None of the tourists who passed 15 mi from this spot on the official trail could see it. But in the summer of 2015, three hunters making their way through the thick undergrowth away from the known trails happened to look up. They reported the strange find to the rangers, assuming it was old trash abandoned by someone many years ago.
When the sleeping bag was finally removed from the tree and opened, it contained not belongings, but human bones. Two skeletons huddled together in rotten fabric. To understand how they got there, we must go back 10 years to July 2005 when this story began. This story begins on Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 in North Carolina.
On that day, 27-year-old Kevin Holmes and his 24year-old wife, Julia Holmes, left their home in Asheville for a planned 7-day hike. Their destination was the Pisca National Forest, a section of the Appalachian Mountain Range known for its challenging trails and dense, sparssely populated forests. The couple planned to hike a loop trail that included sections of the Artlobe Trail and an exit to Black Boulders’s Knob.

They were due to return home no later than July 26th. On July 27th, after the couple failed to contact anyone or return to town, their relatives filed a missing person’s report with the Bunkham County Sheriff’s Office. This marked the beginning of one of the longest and most unsolved search cases in the state’s history.
Kevin Holmes worked as a software engineer at a local technology company. His wife, Julia Holmes, was 4 months pregnant and worked remotely as a graphic designer. They had been married for 2 years and according to friends and family had a stable relationship. Neither were professional climbers, but they had sufficient hiking experience, regularly going on weekend trips into the wilderness.
They viewed the upcoming trip as their last long journey before the birth of their first child. They prepared thoroughly for the trip. A week before their departure on July 12th, Kevin Holmes purchased new hiking boots, propane canisters for a portable stove, and a 7-day supply of freeze-dried food at an outdoor gear store in Asheville.
Surveillance camera footage from the store confirms that he was there at approximately 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, July 16th, Julia Holmes spoke on the phone with her mother, Susan Albreight. During the conversation, she mentioned the upcoming trip. She said that they had gathered all the necessary equipment, including a green twoerson tent, two sleeping bags, one blue and one red, and a water filtration system.

She noted that the weather forecast for the coming week was favorable with moderate temperatures and a low chance of precipitation. This was their last documented conversation with their family. On the morning of July 19th, at approximately 6:00 a.m.
, Kevin Holmes sent an email to his colleague informing him that he would be out of the office and out of contact until July 26th. Around 7:00 a.m., neighbors saw Kevin and Julia Holmes loading two large travel backpacks into their silver 2002 Subaru. The car would later be found in the parking lot at the start of the Daniel Boone Scout Trail near the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The vehicle was locked and inside were the couple’s wallets with cash and bank cards, cell phones, and a change of clothes. This indicated that they intended to return to the car and did not plan to leave the area by any other means. Kevin and Julia Holmes were last seen alive at approximately 900 a.m. on July 19th. A 58-year-old tourist from Tennessee, who also started his hike from the same parking lot, witnessed the couple.
According to him, he exchanged a few words with them. They discussed the weather and the condition of the trail. He noted that both were in good spirits and appeared well equipped. Julia was wearing gray hiking pants and a blue t-shirt while Kevin was wearing khaki shorts and a green t-shirt. The witness said they headed into the forest on the main trail leading north.
At that time, there were a few other registered hiking groups in that area of Pisca National Forest. The weather conditions were typical for July in that region. The air temperature was around 22° C. The sky was clear and visibility was good. There were no reports of storms or other natural anomalies in the days that followed.

After that point, all traces of Kevin and Julia Holmes disappeared. They left no messages in the tourist log books located at key points along the route. Their credit cards were not used. Their cell phones left in the car stopped registering on the network shortly after they left the parking lot, which is normal for remote forest areas without cell phone coverage.
They vanished from a well-known and relatively popular hiking trail, leaving no trace behind. On July 27th, 2005, at 2:15 p.m., the Bunkham County Sheriff’s Office officially filed a missing person’s report for Kevin and Julia Holmes. The initial response was standard for such cases. Hospitals, morgs, and police stations in the surrounding counties were checked.
A request was sent to financial institutions to track any activity on the couple’s bank accounts and credit cards. The results of all these checks were negative. At 400 p.m., two deputy sheriffs were dispatched to the parking lot at the start of the Daniel Boone Scout Trail. They found a silver Subaru Forester matching the description of the missing couple’s vehicle.
The vehicle was parked in the designated spot with no visible damage. A look through the windows confirmed that personal belongings were inside. After getting permission from the family, the car was opened. Inside, on the center console and in the glove compartment, a Nokia cell phone belonging to Kevin Holmes and a Motorola cell phone belonging to Julia Holmes were found.

Both devices were turned off, presumably due to dead batteries. Two wallets were also found containing driver’s licenses, social security cards, credit cards, and a total of $112 in cash. The discovery confirmed the leading theory.
Kevin and Julia Holmes had entered the forest from this point and had not left it in their vehicle. That evening, the National Park Service was officially notified of the situation. An initial search party was formed consisting of four rangers from Pisca Park. Their task was to follow the couple’s most likely route up the Daniel Boone Scout Trail to its intersection with the Artlo Lobe Trail and conduct a visual search of the area for a tent, campfire, or other signs of human habitation.
The search continued until dark around 9:00 p.m. and yielded no results. The next morning, July 28th, a full-scale search and rescue operation began. A command center was set up in the parking lot where the car was found. More than 50 people took part in the operation. National Park Service rangers, deputies from the sheriff’s office, and volunteers from several regional search and rescue teams.

A North Carolina National Guard helicopter was deployed for aerial reconnaissance. The area of the couple’s presumed route approximately 30 square miles was divided into sectors for a systematic search. Search teams worked in a grid pattern. Participants lined up in a chain 5 to 10 m apart.
They moved through the industry, examining the ground, bushes, ravines, and other natural cover. The air search was greatly hampered by the dense forest canopy, which in the summer months hides more than 90% of the ground from view. Helicopter pilots focused on looking for bright spots that could be tents or clothing as well as smoke from campfires. Four K-9 teams were brought in whose dogs were trained to search for both living people and human remains.
The dogs were given Kevin and Julia’s clothes from their home to familiarize themselves with, after which the dog handlers began their work from the car in the parking lot, moving along the trail. However, 8 days after the couple was last confirmed to have been in the area, the scent trail was already very weak and scattered.
The dogs showed interest at various points along the trail several times. Still, they were unable to pick up a consistent scent that would lead the searchers off the main route. In parallel with the field work, investigators conducted interviews. They reintered family and friends to compile a detailed list of all the equipment the couple had, including the colors and brands of clothing, tents, and backpacks.
A tourist from Tennessee, who was the last person to see the Holmeses, was interviewed. His testimony did not contain any new information other than confirming that the couple appeared calm and did not express any concern. Investigators also began interviewing other tourists who had registered to visit the park between July 19th and 26.
It was during these interviews that information first emerged that was not considered key at the time. Several unrelated tourists reported contact with an aggressive man in the area west of the Artlobe Trail. The descriptions were consistent.
a white man aged between 50 and 60 with an unckempt gray beard dressed in old camouflage clothing. According to the tourists, he appeared suddenly from the forest, behaved aggressively, demanded that they leave his land, and in one case threatened physical violence. However, he did not display a weapon. These reports were recorded, but at that time the primary focus was on finding traces of an accident, a fall from a cliff, injuries, or an encounter with a wild animal such as a black bear.

By the end of the second week of the search on August 10th, 2005, the intensity of the operation began to decline. During this time, search teams covered hundreds of miles of trails and rough terrain. All known campsites, shelters, streams, and peaks in the couple’s presumed location were searched. Absolutely nothing was found. No tents, no backpacks, no clothing, no traces of a camp.
The large-scale operation was officially called off. The investigation went from active to passive. The case of Kevin and Julia Holmes was classified as a disappearance under unclear circumstances. They vanished into the forest, leaving no clues for those who were looking for them. After the official end of the active search phase in August 2005, the case of Kevin and Julia Holmes’s disappearance was transferred to the criminal investigation department of the Bunkham County Sheriff’s Office.
It was given the status of a cold case. This meant that although the case was not closed, active investigative efforts were suspended until new information or significant clues emerged. Over the next few months, the Homes and Albbright families, not satisfied with the authorities in action, took matters into their own hands.
They organized several search parties with friends and volunteers, which took place in September and October 2005 before the cold weather set in. These searches focused on less obvious and more remote areas of the park that they believed had not been reached by official groups. They also hired a private investigator from Charlotte who spent 3 months conducting his own investigation, reinterviewing witnesses and reviewing case files.
None of these initiatives yielded any results. No new witnesses were found. No items belonging to the missing couple were found. Time passed and the lack of any leads gave rise to several main theories that were considered by both investigators and the public. The first theory was that it was an accident in a remote area.
The Appalachians are known for their rugged terrain which includes hidden ravines, abandoned mines, and caves that are not marked on maps. According to this theory, one or both spouses could have been seriously injured in a fall and ended up in a place that was not visible to search parties. This theory was contradicted by the fact that after 10 weeks of intensive searching, not a single piece of their equipment was found.
No backpack, no boot, not even a scrap of fabric, which would have been highly unlikely in a typical accident. The second theory is that they were attacked by a wild animal, specifically a black bear. Although such cases are sporadic, they are not impossible. However, wildlife experts involved in the investigation pointed out that a bear attack resulting in the death of two adults would inevitably have left significant traces, torn clothing, damaged equipment, and biological material at the scene.
Nothing of the sort was found. A third theory, that of voluntary disappearance, was considered and quickly dismissed. A financial analysis of the couple’s accounts revealed no unusual transactions or large cash withdrawals before the trip. Their social and family ties were strong.
Julia’s pregnancy made the idea of running away and starting a new life from scratch highly unlikely. They did not take any documents, money, or means of communication with them. The fourth and most disturbing version is a violent crime. The complete absence of any traces pointed to the possible involvement of a third party who not only committed the crime but also made a concerted effort to hide the bodies and all evidence.
In this context, investigators returned to the tourists statements about a hostile hermit. Work was carried out to identify this individual. Records of property owners adjacent to the national park were examined as well as rangers reports of illegal parking or unauthorized structures. During this work, the name of Leonard Milton, a former forest ranger who was fired from the United States Forest Service in 1998 for aggressive behavior and threats against tourists came up.

It was determined that he owned a small plot of land with a dilapidated cabin about 5 miles from the trail where the Holmeses were last seen. In October 2005, two detectives visited his home. Milton confirmed that he lived in the forest permanently, but categorically denied any contact with the missing couple.
He allowed a cursory search of his hut and the surrounding area, which revealed nothing suspicious. Given the lack of direct evidence linking him to the disappearance as well as his constitutional rights protecting him from unreasonable search and seizure, investigators had no legal grounds for further action against Milton.
His name was entered into the case file as a person of potential interest, but no active investigation was conducted. Years passed. Every July, the local newspaper, the Asheville Citizen Times, published a short article marking the anniversary of Kevin and Julia Holmes’s disappearance. The story became a local legend, a horror story told to tourists. County sheriffs came and went, detectives retired, and the home’s case files gathered dust in the archives.
In 2012, after the seven years established by North Carolina law had expired, Kevin and Julia Holmes were officially declared dead by a court decision. It was a legal formality necessary to settle matters related to their property and insurance. Still, for their families, it marked the symbolic end of any hope for their return.
By the summer of 2015, the Holmes case had become a cold file. It was considered hopeless. 10 times the leaves fell and grew back in the Pisc forest. 10 times snow covered the ground, hiding its secrets. It seemed that the forest would never give back what it had taken.
The 10-year silence was broken on Saturday, August 15th, 2015. On that day, two local residents, brothers Michael and David Richardson, were exploring hunting grounds in a remote section of the Pisca National Forest. They were about 15 mi southwest of the trail where the Holmeses had disappeared in an area with no marked trails and rarely visited by people.
The terrain was dense mixed forest with steep slopes and rocky outcrops making movement extremely difficult. At about 2:30 p.m. during a rest stop, one of the brothers, David Richardson, noticed an unusual object on a large old oak tree. About 20 ft up in the fork of two thick branches was a dark, shapeless bundle.
After 10 years in the open air, it had faded to a dirty gray color, covered with patches of lychen and moss, and partially grown into the bark of the tree. Its shape was irregular and from a distance it resembled a large nest or a pile of forest debris stuck in the tree after a hurricane.
However, upon closer inspection through binoculars, the brothers could make out fragments of synthetic fabric and the remains of a zipper, indicating that it was artificial. They speculated that it might be an old sleeping bag or part of camping equipment left behind by someone many years ago. Attempts to knock the object down from the tree with a long branch were unsuccessful. The bundle was heavy and stuck fast in the fork.

Without climbing equipment and realizing that the contents could be necessary, the brothers decided to report their find to the authorities. They recorded the exact coordinates of the location using a portable GPS navigator, took several photos of the tree and the object on their mo
bile phones, and headed back. At 5:47 p.m., Michael Richardson called 911, which was forwarded to the Bunkham County Sheriff’s Office. He reported the discovery, described its location, and provided the GPS coordinates. The next morning, August 16th, a team consisting of one National Park Service Ranger and two deputy sheriffs was dispatched to the location.
The Richardson brothers agreed to accompany them to show them the exact spot. The team arrived at the oak tree around 11:00 a.m. After examining the object, the ranger, who had experience with climbing gear, confirmed that special equipment would be needed to safely retrieve the find. The recovery operation began at around 100 p.m.
The ranger climbed the tree, secured safety ropes, and then tied slings around the bundle. The object was much heavier than expected, weighing more than 100 lb. With great care not to damage the fragile and decomposed contents, the bundle was slowly lowered to the ground onto a tarpollen that had been spread out in advance. Once on the ground, it became clear that it was indeed a sleeping bag, although the fabric was worn and torn in places.
The zipper was rusted and stuck. One of the deputy sheriffs carefully cut the fabric along the seam with a knife. When the edges of the bag parted, a mass of decayed fabric, leaves, dirt, and human bones was revealed inside. At first glance, it was clear that the remains belonged to more than one person. Two skulls were clearly visible among the bones.
At that moment, the site was immediately declared a crime scene. The area within a 100 yards of the tree was cordoned off with police tape. Investigators from the homicide department and a forensic expert were called in. The initial team remained at the scene to secure evidence until the arrival of the main investigative team.
Detective James Galloway, who was a young patrol officer in 2005 and participated in the initial search for the Holmeses, was one of the first investigators to arrive at the scene. Upon seeing the contents of the sleeping bag and comparing the location of the find with the 10-year-old case, he immediately assumed that the remains of the missing couple had been found.
The bones were fragile, darkened by time and moisture. They were intertwined with the remains of clothing that had almost completely decayed. After conducting an initial examination at the scene, the forensic expert confirmed that the remains belonged to two adults, a man and a woman.
He also noted features of the female skeleton’s pelvic bones that could indicate pregnancy. The 10-year search had come to an end in the most horrific way possible. The question, “Where are they?” was replaced by, “What happened to them and who did this?” The forest had revealed its secret, and it was more terrifying than anyone could have imagined.
Work at the crime scene continued for more than 36 hours. Specialists from the North Carolina State Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation Services methodically searched every inch of the cordonedoff area. A detailed map of the area was drawn up and the exact location of the tree and the sleeping bag on it was documented.
Forensic scientists conducted a thorough examination of the oak tree itself, taking samples of bark and moss from the fork where the bag had been. A search for evidence was then conducted on the ground within a 50- ft radius of the tree. Using metal detectors and sifting through the top layer of soil and fallen leaves, the team looked for any non-biological artifacts, bullets, shell casings, buttons, buckles, or a possible murder weapon. This search yielded no results.

The absence of any foreign objects on the ground beneath the tree indicated that the killer had most likely left nothing behind that could identify him. The sleeping bag itself, with its contents, was placed in an airtight container and transported to the state’s chief medical examiner’s laboratory in Chapel Hill for detailed analysis.
On August 18th, 2015, the painstaking work of pathologists and forensic anthropologists began. The skeletal remains were carefully removed from the remains of the sleeping bag and decomposed organic matter. The first task was to officially identify the remains. Anthropologists confirmed that one skeleton belonged to a Caucasian male approximately 6′ 1 in tall, aged between 25 and 30 years old.
The second skeleton belonged to a Caucasian woman approximately 5’6 in tall, aged between 20 and 25. These details matched Kevin and Julia Holmes’s physical characteristics perfectly. For final confirmation, dental records for both were requested from their family dentists archives. A forensic odontologist compared post-mortem X-rays of the jaws with anti-mortem records.
On August 20th, 2015, a 100% conclusion was reached. The remains belonged to Kevin Holmes and Julia Holmes. The families were officially notified on the same day. 10 years of uncertainty had come to an end for them. The next step was to determine the cause of death. An examination of Julia Holmes’s bones revealed no signs of trauma during her lifetime.
No fractures, bullet wounds, or knife wounds. Due to the complete decomposition of the soft tissues, it was impossible to determine the exact cause of her death. However, upon examining Kevin Holmes’s skull, the anthropologist discovered several linear depressed fractures in the occipital and parietal regions.
The nature of these fractures indicated that they had been inflicted with great force by a heavy blunt object such as a large rock or club. These injuries were deemed incompatible with life. The official cause of Kevin Holmes’s death was listed as traumatic brain injury resulting from a blow with a blunt object, given the circumstances in which the bodies were found.
The nature of the injuries to one of the victims led the medical examiner to classify the manner of death of both as murder. Further investigation confirmed the most tragic aspect of this case. After thoroughly washing and sifting through the contents of the sleeping bag among the decayed fabric and plant debris, tiny bone fragments were found.
An examination determined that these were the remains of a human fetus whose gestational age was between 16 and 20 weeks. Julia Holmes had been murdered along with her unborn child. After the victims were officially identified and the fact of violent death established, the disappearance case was reclassified as a double murder. The investigation was formally reopened.
Detective James Galloway was appointed head of the investigation team. His first action was to retrieve the original 2005 case file from the archives. He spent several days methodically studying every document, search reports, witness interview transcripts, equipment lists, and financial reports. He reanalyzed all the existing theories. Theories about an accident or animal attack were now completely ruled out.
The discovery of the bodies in a sleeping bag in a tree 20 ft up 15 mi from the route clearly indicated the actions of a third party who had gone to incredible lengths to hide the bodies. Looking through the old reports, Galloway paid particular attention to information that had not been considered significant 10 years earlier. These were statements from several tourists about an aggressive hermit.

In the context of the double murder, these statements took on a whole new sinister meaning. The detective found a report in the file about a visit to Leonard Milton in October 2005 and a note that there was no evidence against him. But now, in 2015, the investigation had something it didn’t have then, bodies and evidence of a brutal murder.
Leonard Milton’s name was written on the board in the operations room. He became the main and only suspect. The investigation, which had been dormant for 10 years, took on a clear direction. On August 21st, 2015, the day after the remains were officially identified, Detective Galloway initiated proceedings to obtain a search warrant for Leonard Milton’s property.
The request was based on a combination of circumstantial evidence, testimony from tourists in 2005, the geographical proximity of Milton’s home to the couple’s disappearance, and the location where the bodies were found, as well as his documented hostility toward tourists in the past. Despite the lack of direct evidence of his involvement, the district court judge found these arguments sufficient to establish probable cause and issued the warrant.
The operation to execute the warrant was scheduled for the early morning of August 22nd. A tactical team from the sheriff’s office, SWAT, took part in the operation due to the potential danger the suspect could pose. Milton was known to live a reclusive lifestyle, distrust the authorities, and possibly possess unregistered firearms. At 5:30 a.m.
at dawn, a team of eight armed officers and four detectives, including Galloway, arrived at Milton’s property. His property consisted of 1 and a half acres of overgrown land, densely covered with trees, in the center of which stood a small log cabin and a dilapidated shed. The approach to the property was blocked, and the group approached the house on foot, keeping as quiet as possible. At 6:02 a.m.
, the officers surrounded the cabin. After loudly announcing their presence and presenting their warrant, there was no response. A few minutes later, the door was broken down with a battering ram. Inside, in the only room, 65-year-old Leonard Milton was asleep. He was taken by surprise and offered no resistance when arrested.
He was led out of the house in handcuffs and placed in a patrol car for transport to the sheriff’s office for questioning. Immediately afterwards, a methodical search of the hut and the surrounding area began. The condition of Milton’s home was indicative of years of isolation and neglect. The interior was in disarray with old newspapers, tin cans, tools, and clothing scattered everywhere. There was no electricity or running water.
The only source of heat was a cast iron stove. The search of the shack took several hours, but yielded no significant clues related to the home’s case. Forensic experts collected several samples for analysis, but nothing that could directly link him to the murders was found. The investigation team’s attention shifted to a shed located about 30 yard from the house.
It was a dilapidated structure made of wood and rusty sheet metal, littered with old junk, broken garden furniture, empty cans, rotting bags with unknown contents. It was here in the far corner under a pile of old tarpollins that Detective Galloway discovered an old wooden box that had once contained army ammunition. The box was not locked.
Inside, wrapped in an oil- soaked rag, lay a large hunting knife with a deer antler handle. The blade of the knife was covered with dark spots that looked like dried blood. Next to the knife lay a stack of old yellowed notebooks with soft covers. This was a key find. The knife was immediately packed in a sterile container for subsequent shipment to the laboratory for DNA analysis.
Detective Galloway began looking through the notebooks. Most of them contained disjointed notes about the weather, wildlife observations, sketches of plants, and angry tirades against the government and society. However, in one of the notebooks with 2005 written on the cover, he found entries dated July.

On the page dated July 19th, 2005 was the following entry written in uneven angular handwriting. Two came, a guy and a girl, making noise, laughing on my land, told them to get out. She laughed in my face. The following entry was dated July 20th. They didn’t leave. I saw their tent by the creek, green.
They think it’s their park. They don’t respect the forest. They don’t respect me. The most detailed and terrifying entry was on a page with no date, but it was right after the July 20th entry. It read, “Had a date with the couple at night. The guy was strong, but the rock was stronger. She screamed. She was carrying a child inside her.
I could see it in her belly.” I tied her up. They begged. They always beg. I took them up to the big oak tree. Let the birds eat first. Now it’s quiet. My forest is mine again. These notes were a direct, albeit peculiar, confession to murder. The notebook became the prosecution’s key piece of evidence.
It contained details that were unknown to the public and could only have been known to the killer, the green tent, Julia’s pregnancy. The mention of the oak tree definitively linked Leonard Milton to the place where the bodies were found 10 years later. As Galloway read these lines in the dim light of the old barn, the interrogation of the man who wrote them was beginning in the sheriff’s office.
But the investigators did not yet know that they had in their hands his own detailed description of the double murder committed a decade earlier. The interrogation of Leonard Milton began at 9:00 in the morning on August 22nd in the investigative department of the sheriff’s office. It was conducted by Detective Galloway and another investigator. At first, Milton was unccommunicative and refused to answer any questions about his past or the events of the summer of 2005.
He denied knowing Kevin and Julia Holmes and claimed that he had not seen any tourists in the area around his home during that period. For two hours, the detectives asked general questions, allowing Milton to settle into the situation and build his defense based on complete denial. He remained calm, staring at a single point and speaking in a monotone, quiet voice.
The turning point in the interrogation came when Detective Galloway placed two items sealed in evidence bags on the table. a hunting knife with a deer antler handle and a notebook labeled 2005. Milton looked at the items, but his expression did not change. Galloway opened a copy of the notebook and began to read aloud slowly and emotionlessly the entries made in July 2005.
He read the description of the encounter with the couple, their green tent, and finally the last entry describing the nighttime attack, the blow with a rock, and the mentioned that the woman was carrying a child inside. When the detective finished reading, the room fell silent for several minutes.

Milton stopped staring at the wall and looked at Galloway. The pressure created by the irrefutable evidence written in his own hand broke his silence. He began to speak. His confession was neither emotional nor remorseful. He said calmly, methodically, as if describing an everyday event. He uttered the words that were recorded verbatim in the report. I hate tourists.
They think the forest is an amusement park, but this is my home. That woman laughed when I told them to get out. They didn’t listen. I waited for them at night and hit the guy with a rock. I tied her up. I knew she was pregnant. They screamed and begged. I wanted them to rot where no one would find them. So, I dragged them to a tree and threw a sleeping bag over them.
I wanted the crows and time to do their work. He did not express a shred of remorse. For him, his actions were a logical and justified restoration of order on his territory. The interrogation was over. The prosecution had a full confession backed up by material evidence. Based on his confession and the evidence found in his shed, Leonard Milton was formally charged with two counts of firstdegree murder.
The trial began in January 2016 and attracted widespread national media attention. The prosecution was represented by the North Carolina State Attorney’s Office. Milton was defended by a court-appointed public defender. During the trial, the prosecution presented all of its evidence. A forensic expert testified about the nature of Kevin Holmes’s injuries and confirmed that Julia was pregnant.
The Richardson brothers described how they found the remains. Detective Galloway recounted the search and discovery of the knife and notebook. The trial culminated in the prosecutor reading aloud excerpts from Milton’s diary. The courtroom was completely silent, broken only by the quiet sobs of the victim’s relatives.
Laboratory analysis of the knife showed that the stains on the blade were indeed traces of human blood. However, over 10 years, the DNA had degraded so much that it was impossible to extract a complete profile and match it to the victims. Nevertheless, the mere fact that human blood was found on the knife, which was found together with the confession diary, was strong circumstantial evidence.

Throughout the trial, Leonard Milton behaved in the same way as he had during the interrogation. He sat motionless, showed no emotion, and did not contest the evidence presented. He refused to testify in his own defense. On January 26th, 2016, after a brief deliberation that lasted less than three hours, the jury returned to the courtroom. The foreman read the verdict.
Leonard Milton was found guilty on all counts, including two counts of first-degree murder. The sentencing hearing took place a week later. Given the particular cruelty of the crime, the premeditated nature of the actions, and the absence of mitigating circumstances such as remorse, the prosecution demanded the maximum penalty.
The judge agreed with the prosecution’s arguments. Before handing down the sentence, he addressed Milton, noting that his actions were an act of absolute malice, devoid of any human compassion. Leonard Milton was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He was immediately taken into custody and sent to a maximum security prison in North Carolina to serve his sentence.
After the trial, life slowly returned to normal. Still, the story of Kevin and Julia Holmes forever changed the Peas Grove National Forest. The oak tree, where their remains were found, became known to locals and tourists as the homes tree. The National Park Service did not cut down the tree, but rangers note that hiking trails in this remote sector of the park have fallen into disuse.
The area has gained a reputation as a place of mourning and is now avoided. Experienced rangers and law enforcement officers working in the Appalachian region say in private conversations that the mountains hold many secrets. The vast, sparssely populated forests are the perfect place to hide crimes and other victims whose disappearances have never been solved likely lie in the wilderness.
The remains of Kevin and Julia Holmes were cremated and buried together in a family cemetery in Asheville. The decadel long mystery of their disappearance has been solved. Still, the scars left by this story will forever remain in the memory of the community and in the silence of the Appalachian Mountains.