Murdered Portsmouth man was homeless, but not nameless

PORTSMOUTH

His friends knew him as "Lunchmeat." He was one of hundreds of homeless people getting by in this port city.

When he disappeared, his friends called police, fearing the worst. The next day, his body was found floating in the Elizabeth River off the downtown waterfront, where homeless people often sit on benches.

Another homeless man has been charged with second-degree murder.

Lunchmeat's real name, unknown to many, was Randy Hines, and he was 44. He grew up in Portsmouth's Mount Hermon neighborhood. He once worked for the city and had a sister who keeps old photos of him neatly tucked in an album.

He was well-liked on the streets. He was also haunted by the deaths of his mother and niece in a house fire in 2004 from which he escaped.

He had family nearby - and plenty of friends. "This is a tragedy to us, because he was such a good friend to everybody out here," said one of them, Tamara Ricks.

He didn't always live on the streets.

Randy Hines and his sister were raised by their mother, Doretha Hines. He went to Churchland Elementary and Woodrow Wilson High School but did not graduate.

Hines connected to people quickly, said his sister, Darlene Hines Saunders. He worked long ago for the school system, then a steel company and a shipyard, she said.

He didn't share everything with his sister, but he talked to her about the 2004 house fire on Dixie Avenue in Portsmouth that killed their mother and Darlene's 7-year-old daughter, Sheniqua. The fire broke out about 2:30 a.m. while they were sleeping in the house, rented by Hines' mother. Randy Hines escaped.

He told his sister that someone later said to him: "You got out. How come you didn't get your mother and your niece out?"

That weighed him down, she said. He told her he had tried to help.

He became homeless, she said, around 2006.

Hines knew he was always welcome at her home near downtown Portsmouth and he sometimes came in bad weather. She thinks her brother got comfortable living on the streets.

She asked him once how he got his nickname. He said his friends "just came up with the name."

Hines told his sister he liked going to services at Tidewater Bibleway Temple.

"He was always drawn to do the right thing, even though he was out there," she said.

On the streets, Hines was one of hundreds scraping by.

A survey counted 210 homeless people in Portsmouth during a 24-hour period in January. A shelter run by Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless saw more than 400 individuals over the winter, said Annie White-Guertin, executive director of the Portsmouth Area Resources Coalition, which runs housing programs.

The actual number of homeless is higher than 400, she said, because some people don't want to associate with service providers.

Jo-Anne Roisen, director of Oasis Social Ministry - where homeless people eat meals, get clothes and receive help with job searches - called Hines quiet and respectful, with a nice smile.

Outside Oasis last week, his death weighed like the Tidewater summer heat. Friends described him as laid-back, "chill," quiet, polite, friendly. They said he gave money to others.

"Lunchmeat got along with everybody," Ricks said.

Like other homeless people, he spent time reading in the library.

"He liked spy novels. Anything with a lot of action in it," said Robert Perdue, who said he's known him for years. "In all them years, he hadn't changed."

His friends gave similar accounts of what happened around the time of his death: Lunchmeat and Ihar Sotinikau, whom they know as "The Russian," were seen hanging out at the river on Thursday, June 17. One friend saw them drinking together at a boat launch about 7 p.m.

Friday morning, Sotinikau approached other homeless people in Olde Towne and made some odd statements, saying Lunchmeat was gone and wasn't coming back, according to Ricks and another friend, Mark Mitchell.

Friends called police, who issued a missing-person news release about Hines.

Mitchell said he spotted Hines' body in the river Saturday evening. Police soon arrived.

Police charged Sotinikau on Monday afternoon with second-degree murder. They said their investigation showed he caused Hines to go into the water and drown. Sotinikau, 35, now held in the Portsmouth jail, declined to be interviewed for this story.

A few days after spotting Hines' body, Mitchell leaned over a dock at the waterfront to shake the hand of a muscled Marine veteran fishing off the pier.

"I'm the one that called the police," Mitchell said.

"Oh, man. What's your name?"

"Mr. Mitchell."

"Thank you very much," the man replied, straw hat clasped against his bare back.

The Marine vet was William Winston Hines, Randy Hines' brother.

In recent days, he has gotten to know the friends his brother spent time with. They told him Lunchmeat was treasured and trusted, and gave even when he had little.

"He never lost his zest for life, and the mind to do the right thing - at least try to - regardless of his circumstances," William Hines said. "This is the only peace I can find when I think about that. I come down here and I fish and I think of the good times we had together."

Darlene Hines Saunders invited Hines' friends to her brother's funeral on Friday, and otherwise kept the service private.

Two homeless people spoke, she said.

One said "how he was homeless and Randy taught him the ropes, where he could go to keep warm... where he could get clothes, where he could get different resources," she said.

Randy Hines was laid to rest at Lincoln Cemetery on Friday. The ashes of his mother and niece were lowered into the ground with him.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 222-3893, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com

Shayna Meliker, (757) 446-2326, shayna.meliker@pilotonline.com