Blood On The Mountain

Wil Haygood (thanks, Leah): BRUSHY MOUNTAIN, Giles County, Va.



High on the mountain, the sun has to fight its way down through the thick forest. The light takes on a spectral elegance, as if yellow diamonds are falling to the ground.



The two campers loved so much about the mountain. How it gave to its visitors, how generous it seemed: There's another deer; listen to that owl; the trout are running.



But a murderer was in these woods, too. And he brought darkness to the light.



When Randall Lee Smith rose from a meal with Scott Johnston and Sean Farmer at their campsite along the Appalachian Trail here in southwestern Virginia in May, he politely thanked them for the fried trout…