(LEX 18) — A convicted rapist and attempted murderer will be released from prison on August 19, after serving 17 years for a brutal attack in Breckinridge County in 2007.
Ernest Pine will be free this week, despite the gruesome nature of his crime that shares striking similarities with an unsolved murder from 1992 in Hardin County.
"I don't understand how someone serving time for the kind of crimes that he is, is granted an early release, good behavior or not," said Danny Hawkins, whose mother was murdered in a similar attack in 1992.
Pine was never formally connected to or charged in the murder of Elena Sanchez Hawkins, who was murdered in her Boston, Kentucky home at just 29 years old. Now, for the first time, Elena's oldest son is speaking publicly about the unsolved crime.
Growing up in rural Hardin County, Hawkins was a mamma's boy.
"Everybody loves their mom, right? It's hard to describe but, if you have boys, your mom is your best friend at that age," Danny said. "She was a lot of fun. Just a big smile, big personality. Everybody loved her," Danny said. "My mom was like 4'11", but she thought she was 8 feet tall."
Elena was also a devoted wife. She and her husband, Michael, both worked at convenience stores on Dixie Avenue in Elizabethtown. That's where Michael was the morning of January 8th, 1992.
8-year-old Danny was at school, just minutes away from their home off Bardstown Road. Elena was at home with her 3-year-old son.
What happened that morning has baffled investigators for more than 30 years. Kentucky State Police said that after Elena made sure Danny was on the school bus around 7:30, someone entered their home, sexually assaulted her, tied her hands behind her back, and slashed her throat.
Their youngest son was unharmed. But when Michael called home to make sure Danny was on the way to school, the toddler answered, telling his father his mother was bleeding.
"It was the most traumatic thing of his life. She was his best friend, she was the love of his life," Danny said of his father's experience.
Detectives ruled Michael out as a suspect in the case early on and began looking into leads, including a black Datsun truck a woman said she'd seen at the house that day. That tip turned up nothing, and few other leads developed. The case grew cold.
Michael and his sons eventually moved to Scott County, and he remarried, but he died at 42 years old without learning what happened to his wife.
"He wanted justice not only for himself, but for us. It's bad enough to suffer that kind of crime but to have no answers, it's just unacceptable, right?" Danny said.
Danny has spent the majority of his life without knowing what happened to his mother. He now lives in Lexington with his wife and children and is speaking publicly for the first time, hoping this motivates someone to come forward.
"I feel like it's my responsibility, to myself, to my family, to make sure her name gets out there and hopefully get some justice," he told LEX 18.
Podcast host highlights similarities between cases
Megan Storm, host of the true-crime podcast "A Simpler Time," recently covered Elena's case in-depth, hoping more publicity could lead to justice decades later.
"It's never too late to do the right thing, and I genuinely believe that there are people in the local community that know more than what they're saying," she said.
Storm believes there could be renewed interest in solving Elena's case because of recent developments involving a similar attack in 2008 in Hardinsburg, Kentucky.
That's when Ernest Pine raped and stabbed a neighbor who was home alone with her toddler-aged grandchild. Similarities in the cases led a KSP detective to consider him "someone of interest" in Elena's murder, but not a suspect, The News-Enterprise reported in 2012.
"This was a grandmother and a mother. They were women, alone with small children," Storm said. "And in both cases, there is the sexual assault, the binding, the throat being cut, all of those things. Both of those cases just have the overlap, which is why I think they jumped out to authorities immediately and it jumped out to the community immediately."
In the attack of his neighbor, Pine pleaded guilty in 2009 to charges including attempted murder and rape and received a 20-year sentence. After his release, a Breckinridge County judge ordered him to have no contact with the victim or her family. Pine is now 75 years old.
Only investigators or Pine himself could reveal the truth about any involvement in Elena's murder. But his early release doesn't sit right with her oldest son.
"I don't feel like that's justice for his victims," Danny said.
He and Storm believe advancements in DNA testing could eventually shed light on who killed Elena.
"Elena is someone who was just protecting her baby that day and she paid the ultimate price for it. And I hope that whoever did this to her is put behind bars for that," Storm said.
Until that happens, Danny reflects on a life without his mother and first best friend.
"I think she'd be just proud as punch. My mom was all about her kids. She would have been an amazing grandmother. I hope that I've made her proud with everything I've done," Hawkins said.
Kentucky State Police told LEX 18 Elena's case is still open and being actively investigated. Any tips should be reported to KSP Post 4 at (270) 766–5078.
