Hagedorn is scheduled to be released from prison

By Rose Hooper

Convicted as a youthful offender at age 17, Hagedorn is now the same age as the young man he helped abuse, torture and suffocate to death.

Hagedorn, imprisoned at Tilley Correctional Center, has served seven years of his 20-year sentence. According to the N.C. Department of Corrections, his release date is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 25.

Superior Court Judge Marlene Hyatt sentenced Hagedorn to 20 years as an accessory before the fact on July 27, 1995. A 30-year sentence for second-degree kidnapping was suspended on the condition that he be placed on five years supervised probation upon his release from prison.

Son of Cecil and Geraldine Queen of Tuckasegee, the victim was discovered in a shallow grave near Toccoa, Ga. Investigators said that Queen endured at least a week of torture in a Cullowhee trailer before being bound and gagged and put in a narrow closet with the door nailed shut.

"I don't know how I'm going to face him... what kind of reaction I'll have if I see him back in Jackson County,"Geraldine Queen said of Hagedorn. "My main hope is that he has had time to reflect on his actions and will come out of prison a decent person."

Also convicted in the same crime as youthful offenders are Robert Trantham, 25, who remains in Lincoln Correctional Center, and Michelle Shook Vinson, 26, who is at the N.C. Correctional Institute for Women.

Those who received life sentences in the crime were Carlton Anderson, Vickie Jumper Fox, Kenneth Fox and Walter Thomas York.

Back to Archive: 08/02/01.