Defendant Billy Hawk, left, talks with attorney Jim Logan on the 2nd day of Hawk’s murder trial in Judge Don Poole’s courtroom in Hamilton County Criminal Court on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. A grand jury indicted Hawk, 62, in September for first-degree murder in the 1981 slaying of Johnny Mack Salyer.Shana Salyer was not quite 2 years old when her father’s body was found in a 55-gallon steel drum on Chickamauga Lake in June 1981. Clad in underwear and decomposing, Johnny Mack Salyer went unidentified for days.
For Shana Salyer, though, the mystery of her father’s death continued another 34 years.
According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed Monday in Hamilton County Civil Court, Shana Salyer never knew the identity of her father’s alleged killer until a meeting with District Attorney General Neal Pinkston on June 14, 2015. Now, she has asked for a jury trial to determine whether William “Billy” Hawk, since convicted, owes her $5 million in damages.
“I think what the judge and the jury will consider is that Johnny Mack Salyer’s murder by Billy Hawk is as cruel and barbaric an act ,” said her attorney, Darren McBride, before trailing off. “My client lost her father before her second birthday.”
Last week, after a five-day trial, Hawk was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In May 1981, he and Salyer were co-defendants in a pending cocaine distribution case in Hamilton County.