Carl "Eddie" Epling loved the Grateful Dead.
Tuesday at the Boulevard Tavern, those he left behind will meet up to listen to some of the band's songs in his memory. Epling, 42, was struck and killed by a motorist while he was walking on Corridor G earlier this month.
The fundraiser will feature Grateful Dead cover band Bill Walton Express. Yvonne Estep, Epling's sister, said the family plans to spend the money on a reward for information leading to the identity of the person who killed him.
Epling, a Charleston resident and Capital High graduate, was a strong supporter of live music, Estep said.
"He loved the people," Estep said. "He loved the atmosphere - the freeness, you know?
"It's a different type of life," she said. "I wouldn't want to follow but I had fun at the shows going and seeing them occasionally. I wouldn't have been one like him who jumped in my car and headed off to the next one."
Estep loved to read too, his sister said - anything from conspiracy theories to poetry.
"He was all into the nonconventional, but then again, he loved Stephen King too," Estep said. "He would read anything from the classics to the newest and anything in between."
He was also a big kid at heart, according to Estep.
"All the kids loved him," she said."We used to tell him it was because he was on their level."
Tiffany Vannoy, who came up with the idea for the fundraiser and messaged Dave Thomas, booking agent at the Boulevard Tavern to arrange it, described Epling as a warm-hearted, easy-spirited person.
"When he hugged you, he would always give a warm hug," she said.
Thomas said Vannoy approached him with the idea and said the family needed money for funeral expenses. He remembers going to Grateful Dead and Phish shows with Epling in the 1990s.
"He would gather people together to go to these shows, whether it was local or regional," Thomas said.
He remembered one Phish show, in Cleveland, when Epling had packed a group of people into his van as usual. On the way back, Epling was driving 75-80 miles per hour in the snow when a police officer pulled them over.
Somehow, Epling talked the officer into a warning, Thomas said.
"As soon as he got back in the van, he drove 80 miles an hour because he needed to get back to Charleston," Thomas said.
Estep said the family hopes the benefit brings them closer to closure.
"I couldn't leave a dog laying on the side of the road, let alone a human," she said.
Estep said she hopes the person who hit Epling is living a nightmare.
"I hope it's on their mind every waking moment and that they don't sleep because of it," she said. "I have said before that I wish they would burn in hell, but I wouldn't want to put their family through what we're going through."
She said her family deserves to know what happened that night. She wants to be able to tell her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
"Even though she might not remember on a daily basis ... I would like to eventually when she does ask me on occasion, let her know how it happened and that he's had justice," she said.
Tonight is "Tip Jar Tuesday," at the Boulevard Tavern, at 806 Kanawha Blvd. E. Attendees can give a donation of their choosing to go to Epling's family, Thomas said. The fundraiser starts at 9.
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.