Man imprisoned in Illinois case claims he abducted 39 women

A convicted kidnapper long suspected in dozens of disappearances now claims that he abducted 39 women and killed some of his victims before he went to prison in 1994, including a Wisconsin woman who vanished nearly 20 years ago.

Larry DeWayne Hall spoke with The Associated Press late Thursday from the North Carolina prison where he's serving a life sentence in the 1993 kidnapping of a 15-year-old Illinois girl. Hall blamed mental illness for his crimes, saying many details were fuzzy and that he often suffered prolonged blackouts.

"I'll just say I picked up 39 women altogether from 1980 to '94," Hall said during the brief telephone interview. "I spent some time with them. Sometimes bad things happened. Other times I just let 'em go."

When asked what he meant by "bad things," he said some women ended up dead. The phone call was disconnected when his allotted 15 minutes were up, before he could respond to questions about how many women he killed or where the alleged crimes took place. He didn't call back, and inmates cannot accept incoming calls.

But he went into detail about the 1992 disappearance of 20-year-old Laurie Depies in Wisconsin. Hall has long been a person of interest in the case, and he recently told authorities that he kidnapped the young woman. Police are following leads, and although they cautioned that no evidence linking Hall to Depies has been found, they said he had information that wasn't publicized.

Hall claimed Thursday that he lured the young woman to his van in the Town of Menasha, about 100 miles north of Milwaukee, and then briefly blacked out. When he regained his senses, he claimed, she was tied up and unconscious. Hall said he then sexually assaulted her, killed her and disposed of her body in a wooded area.

"I'm very sorry for what happened. I wish to god it had never happened," he said. "Since I'm taking medications now, I'm a lot different than I was in '92."

Depies' mother, Mary Wegner, said she wasn't sure whether to believe the apology.

"It makes me feel kind of sick to my stomach," she told AP after being told about Hall's comments. "Nobody likes to hear or visualize their daughter having to go through that kind of thing."

Hall is serving a life sentence after being convicted in the 1993 kidnapping of Jessica Roach near Georgetown, Ill. Her body was found six weeks later, in a cornfield in Indiana.

Hall was suspected in dozens of other disappearances in several states, and although he was a person of interest in the Depies case, evidence was elusive. Investigators followed up with him in prison late last year he allegedly admitted his role in Depies' abduction.

He told the AP that he wanted to give her family closure.

"Well, isn't that nice," her mother murmured when told of Hall's comment.

Authorities are skeptical of his story. Town of Menasha Police Chief Rod McCants noted that Hall wasn't cooperating with investigators in other states, causing police to wonder whether Hall was simply angling for a Wisconsin conviction because the state doesn't have the death penalty.

Not so, Hall said. His previous trial was so difficult, he claimed, that he didn't want to go through another. He also said he's treated well at the medium-security federal prison in Butner, N.C., and gets the medication he needs. He said he prefers being in the federal system because he's been told a state system can be rougher.

Some facts about Depies' disappearance are well known: She left her mall job on a summer evening and drove to her boyfriend's home. He heard her car in the parking lot, and when she didn't come upstairs, he went outside and found her vehicle locked and her soda cup sitting on the car roof. There were no signs of struggle, no tracks in the gravel suggesting someone was dragged, and if she'd screamed, her boyfriend likely would have heard.

Hall claimed that he'd met Depies at the mall and asked her out for pizza, but she told him she didn't have time because she was going to a friend's house. Hall said he followed her in his van, and as she parked, he stopped in the street. He called to her and offered to show her a photo album of antique cars. She recognized him and came over, he claimed.

At first she didn't want to get in his van but at some point she entered, Hall said. Eventually she told him she wanted to leave.

"I don't remember a whole lot about what happened then," Hall said. "I kind of came to my senses and she was in the back in the van. She was unconscious. I didn't, at the time I didn't really want to hurt her or nothing."

Hall said he injected her with anesthesia that a friend had gotten from an animal hospital, then said he couldn't remember details other than she was dead hours later when he took her to a wooded area.

He wouldn't say what did with her body, claiming that revealing such information could results in him facing Wisconsin charges.

"If they charge me I'm going to be really upset," he said.

McCants said investigators are following leads to determine whether charges might be filed.

"As far as any additional evidence being located, not at this point in time," the police chief said.

Depies' mother said she was still trying to process the latest details. Part of her, she said, wanted Hall in a courtroom so she could see what sort of man her daughter may have agreed to get into a vehicle with and if his remorse was sincere.

"He may have come a long way, and remorse is a good thing," Wegner said. "But it still happened. He can't take that away from the reality of the story.

"He's still here," she said. And her daughter isn't.