MINNIE – A candlelight vigil will be held tonight at the Minnie Park at the junction of Route 680 in honor of Gregory “Google” Shepherd, who was found murdered this past November.

The family is holding the vigil this evening in anticipation of a court hearing tomorrow, during which they hope a trial date will be set for the three people accused of murdering him.

In mid-November of last year, Shepherd’s body was located along an ATV trail in Knott County after police were led to the location by Tina Adkins, Susan Morgan and Tommy Crum, the three later charged for Shepherd’s murder.

Adkins, who has referred to herself as Shepherd’s common-law-wife, along with Morgan and Crum, are charged with murder following a grand jury decision in Knott County. The three had been charged with complicity to commit murder in Floyd before the change of venue.

Reports at the time, were that Shepherd had returned home from a hunting trip, became involved in an altercation and then left abruptly.

Authorities said the 38-year-old Hueysville man was beaten, stabbed multiple times and then run over by a car. The state medical examiner’s office said Shepherd’s official cause of death was from head trauma.

The three were also charged with tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.

Now, some nine months later, Shepherd’s family is ready to see a trial date set and justice served.

“They’re being so slow about doing anything,” said Susanne Slone, Shepherd’s aunt. “Every time I talk to them they say they haven’t got all the evidence back from Frankfort.”

Slone, who said she has dealt most often with Knott County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Todd Martin, said Martin has “been really good” about dealing with her, but the family’s patience is wearing thin.

“I’m going to be very disappointed if they don’t set a trial date Thursday,” Slone said. “They’ve just been dragging around and keeping them in jail and not having a trial. Greg was a good boy. He’d do anything for anybody.”

These sentiments were shared by other members of Shepherd’s family, including his his older sister Virginia Hamilton, who remembers her younger brother as a good person.

“Everybody loved him,” said Hamilton. “I just don’t understand why they can’t go for the death penalty. In my opinion, they should get the death sentence.”

Reports from the investigating officer at the time of the initial steps in Shepherd’s case, Kentucky State Police Det. Dwayne Price, said that based on interviews with Adkins, Morgan and Crum at the time, the results of those conversations were “incriminating,” adding that shortly after the change of venue to Knott County there had been confessions from all three.