Kentucky doctor charged with murdering wife with pontoon boat

**kmtpr** · 06-02-2009, 03:53 PM

A Harrodsburg, Ky. doctor has been charged with murder after he allegedly threw his wife from a pontoon boat on Herrington Lake Friday afternoon and then ran over her.

Isabel Linn Hall, 49, died at about 4:30 p.m. in a gruesome incident near Gwinn Island Resort and Marina. Kentucky State Police Trooper Chris Lanham said Isabel Hall suffered wounds from the boat's propeller to her head, left shoulder and arm. Boyle County Coroner Dr. James Ramey said she died instantly.
Dr. Steven Craig Hall, 46, of 904 Wheatfield Road, Harrodsburg, was being held without bond Saturday in the Boyle County Detention Center pending his arraignment Tuesday in Boyle District Court.
Steven Hall was taken into custody about 11 p.m. Friday. Lanham said investigators found probable cause for the murder charge after speaking with several witnesses and Hall himself.
Witnesses told police they saw the couple arguing on the boat before Steven Hall allegedly pushed his wife overboard and then ran over her with the boat.
Carla Kitchen, who works at the marina, said she received a call at about 4:30 p.m. from a woman who sounded agitated and very upset, saying someone had been hit by a boat. The woman said she had already called 911.
"I said, 'Is the woman OK?' and she said, 'No, she's dead," Kitchen said.
Kitchen said when she asked the caller what had happened, the woman said she had seen a couple fighting on a pontoon boat. The caller told Kitchen the man was chasing the woman around the boat, and the woman was yelling, "Somebody please help me, please help me! He's going to kill me!"
Kitchen said the caller told her the man then threw the woman overboard and ran her over with the boat. The caller then said, "Oh dear God, hurry up! He's trying to drag her away."
Lanham said that after Isabel Hall was run over, her husband retrieved the body by tying it to the boat. "He had tied her off around her leg or arm to keep her from floating away," the trooper said.
Hall then beached the boat on the side of the lake and waited for authorities to arrive, Lanham said.
Herrington Lake was crowded Friday with most of the cabins at Gwinn Island rented for the weekend. Several people gathered near the dock area to watch Investigators interviewed six or seven witnesses, including two inmates from the Northpoint Training Center Jail, who were fishing on the lake, Lanham said.
Hall, a family practitioner, has an office in Harrodsburg with doctors Rick Angel, Nick Dedman and Michael Geile.
'She was a warm-hearted, giving person'
Sonny Ransdell, owner of Ransdell funeral chapel, knew the couple and said they were on the lake celebrating their anniversary. Ransdell said the Halls moved to Harrodsburg about 10 years ago from Canada.
Ransdell said Isabel Hall was known for her kindness.
"She was a warm-hearted, giving person," he said. "She frequently helped families in need with food, clothing or money. She never drew attention to herself when she did it. It was always from the heart."
Ransdell also described Steven Hall as a generous person.
"He coached my oldest son in soccer. And he had a very similar nature (to his wife)," he said. "He was always about helping someone else and very giving of his time."
The Halls had adopted two teenage boys, Ransdell said.
"They really loved those boys, and made it their life's goal to take care of them," he said.
Isabel Hall's body was taken to the Kentucky State Medical Examiner's Office in Frankfort for an autopsy, police said.
Lanham said there was no evidence of alcohol found on the boat.