By Rosa Duarte
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: May 8, 2008

Part of the Appalachian Trail where two men were shot earlier this week is back open.

54 year old Randall Smith is accused of the crime.

According to T.J Mullins with the U.S Forest Service officers with the U.S. Forest Service and National Park service hiked the 28 mile stretch of trail Wednesday searching for any evidence linked to Smith and his whereabouts including any other potential victims.

By Thursday morning, Mullins says they did not find any evidence and re-opened the trail but are still searching areas off the trail up to 45 miles out from the campsite where the shootings took place.

Jack Noll with Appalachian Trail Conservancy says they’re also helping with the investigation, passing Smith’s information along to hikers asking if they’ve seen anything suspicious, “Every now and then hikers get off the trail for a little bit to go camp, they might stumble across something, so the more eyes out there at this point in time, the better.”

At this point, Mullins says they’re following a number of leads and says at this point in time there are no indications of other potential victims but are “keeping it in mind”.