Chase Purdy

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noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 05:41:00 +0000

This blog is now defunct, please see www.chasepurdy.com...

Hunters for Hire: Bounty hunting and Virginia's move to rein them

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 14:59:00 +0000

It’s an Old World model embedded into a 21st-century criminal justice system, one that critics have complained threatens basic liberties.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

She leafed through the contents of a manila folder from the driver’s seat of her truck, which idled in the parking lot of a squat motel on a lonely autumn night. The whiff of bygone cigarettes clung to the interior air. A trail of exhaust drifted languidly against red taillights and off into the clear night.

Teresa St. Clair-Lavender paused to examine a photo. Donald P. Ward, a ruddy man with cropped hair, stared back at her. He was a fugitive wanted in Tennessee for a handful of minor crimes, but St. Clair-Lavender didn’t know this when her company agreed to bond him out of Roanoke City Jail for $1,000. Neither did city authorities. Word traveled fast, though, and so did she.

This is a typical day for St. Clair-Lavender. This is how she earns a living.

She and the 15 or so bail bondsmen across the Roanoke Valley keep tabs on hundreds of people who paid bond for release from jail. The majority will show up for their court dates, as promised. Some, though, will run and hide. Sometimes in broad daylight. Sometimes in attics. And sometimes, if they’re really desperate, between water bed mattresses or packed into layers of pink housing insulation. It is a game of cat and mouse that stretches back through centuries.

Read the rest of the story in The Roanoke Times.

A problem as unstoppable as rain

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:59:00 +0000

New federal regulations are forcing Virginia communities to manage storm water runoff in urban areas, a costly assignment and a creative challenge for municipalities.

BY CHASE PURDY

The Roanoke Times

The rain will continue to fall from the clouds, but starting in July, depending on where it lands, those tiny drops will also start adding up in dollars.

Communities across Virginia are bracing for a change in federal regulations this summer that will ask local governments to manage the rainwater that lands on urban landscapes.

The latest set of standards is set to take effect in July, signaling to municipal engineering offices that it is time to physically expand their effort to control the quantity and quality of runoff entering regional waterways. The methods for achieving that goal can be as creative as they are expensive, and the path to compliance won’t be straightforward, experts and engineers say.

Read the rest of the story in The Roanoke Times.

Seeking to Lure Tourists to a Rugged Outpost Famed for a Deadly Feud

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:40:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The New York Times

SARAH ANN, W.Va. — Standing on the back of an Appalachian hillside, Reo Hatfield fixed his gaze over the land of his infamous forebears, a scowl etched across his face.

Before him, the graves in the Hatfield Family Cemetery had surrendered to years of gravity and weather, slender headstones slumped and overgrown, the inscriptions of some erased by time.

The graveyard, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has become a focal point for Mr. Hatfield, 63, a Virginia businessman seeking to restore and preserve the cemetery in hopes of luring tourists eager to learn about the Hatfield-McCoy feud. It is a burial spot for members of both families — some of whom died in the 19th-century interfamily war over land and family honor.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

Southwest county church is target of vandals

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:26:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

The first sign of trouble was scrawled in black marker across the office microwave, a boxy old thing with the number of the beast inscribed on its door.

"666."

At a nearby reception desk, Natalie Yager spoke with an insurance agent by telephone Thursday.

"Yes. Uh-huh. Well, there are male body parts," she said into the receiver. "I believe it was a couple of youth kids."

She paused.

"Uh-huh. It was unnecessary, completely unnecessary. OK, thank you."

In a nearby office, Celebration Church of God Pastor Sam Belisle still was making sense of why his church had been the target of overnight vandalism. But there it all was, regardless. The hallways strewn with debris ripped from church classrooms' walls, picture frames shattered, angry (and often misspelled) messages covering the walls.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Kevin Chambers' music ends, but beat goes on in hearts of friends

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:52:00 +0000

The Salem man was found unconscious Saturday and died Wednesday.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

Kevin Chambers lived beats, rhymes and rhythms. He taught them, shared them, passed them to his children.

He made a name for himself locally in the 1990s, that young man with an ear for well-versed raps and a solid reputation for making cool mixed tapes. And when he started a family, he incorporated that love into the everyday, friends said.

The music came to an abrupt pause this week, when friends and family soaked in the reality of his sudden passing.

Chambers was pronounced dead at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital on Wednesday afternoon, friends and a relative confirmed. He was 41.

Read the story at The Roanoke Times.

Training cadaver dog is Roanoke doctor's labor of love

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:59:00 +0000

Carol Gilbert and Moki train several times a week, sharpening the dog's senses and attention.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

Carol Gilbert hurled a canister of human teeth out into the grass.

She turned an expectant gaze to the creature at her feet and leaned forward. Thrusting both arms away from her chest, she yelled an order.

"Go find!"

The bouncy Labrador retriever took off, her nose glued to the ground. After a moment of distraction (even highly trained dogs have sporadic attention spans) Moki found the teeth, turned to Gilbert and sat patiently.

This was a warm-up, one of the first steps in a one-hour training session. Gilbert also has cans of fingernail clippings, human hair and dead skin, all kept in a plastic carry case — a tackle box, of sorts — for the training regimen of a cadaver dog.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

For hikers in Rockbridge County, anxiety grew as rescue lengthened

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:50:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

The scraps of news came from deep inside the forest, abrupt updates crackling over a radio at the bottom of a long and dark hiking trail.

It didn't sound good up there.

D.J. Jones' adrenaline started pumping again, and his imagination ran loops.

"It just seemed to sound worse and worse every time they told us something," Jones said. "We didn't know official stuff. We were hearing 40-foot fall, 30-foot-fall. Maybe he had some broken bones. Maybe there was internal bleeding."

That was about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday night, close to 11 hours after Jones, 21, and four fellow Liberty University students struck out on a morning hike to Devil's Marbleyard in the James River Face Wilderness Area.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Truck takes long tumble; driver walks away unhurt

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:53:00 +0000

Johnny Dick and his dog rolled down a steep hill that ended on another truck and a lawn mower.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

It was the poorly hatched plan of an errant squirrel that caused the whole mess. Go figure.

The rodent had darted into the curvy 5900 block of 12 O'Clock Knob Road just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, a move that caught Johnny Dick by surprise. Dick, who said he was driving toward Bent Mountain Road from his home nearby, swerved to miss the creature.

The jerky move sent Dick, his passenger Rabbit (a dog), and his 1978 Ford F-100 careening off the side of the road and over an embankment. The truck tumbled dozens of feet down a steep hill, then crash-landed upside down on top of a lawn mower and a Toyota pickup.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Roanoke family agrees: A late tree is worth the wait

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:49:00 +0000

At Hamill Christmas Tree Farm, few have held off as long as the Levines.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

Christmas tree shopping is not an exact science, especially not this deep into December, when many families have long found and decorated their own.

For some, finding one so late in December might be indicative of a crammed schedule, or perhaps an unforeseen conflict in timing. But for the Levine family, who pulled into the Hamill Christmas Tree Farm parking lot late Saturday morning, the exercise of finding a tree at the tail-end of the season has become a family tradition.

As it happened, they were the first customers of the day.

An exuberant 6-year-old girl, Channa, opened her car door and slid out of the back seat. She grinned and clapped her hands. Behind her, spread across a hill, more than a thousand trees stood waiting in the sunlight. There were Fraser and Canaan firs, white pine, Scotch pine, and sundry spruces. A nippy breeze rushed a quarter of a mile across the farm and into the gravel lot, splashing the senses with that familiar smell. Christmas.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Unsolved homicides in Roanoke frustrate families

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:14:00 +0000

Roanoke investigators continue to search for leads in two 2012 homicides that remain unsolved as the victims' families and friends await justice and hope for closure.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

The words fluttered from her lips and to the ground. Quiet, indistinguishable from afar, a private conversation with a grave.

Hilda Perdue sees her son's burial spot almost every day during her commute to work. She knows now that when she drives by William Memorial Cemetery, if she glances to the crest of the big hill, somewhere between two tall trees is Terrance Perdue's resting place. Forever 30 years old, her son, a natural Mr. Fix-It and handyman, died in April. He was fatally shot in his home in northeast Roanoke.

The day after Christmas, Hilda Perdue slipped out of an SUV and walked toward her son. At the top of the cemetery hill, framed by gray clouds on a bleak afternoon, Perdue stood in the rain and cried.

Life is different. She said it has shifted in the past eight months, altering her routine; the ideas she thinks, the food she eats. Hilda Perdue can't bring herself to prepare her son's favorite meals.

"I haven't been able to eat sweet potato pie since," she said. "I made crock pot macaroni and cheese for the first time yesterday. It's been real hard."

She paused.

"I just wish justice would come, you know, but you have to be patient."

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Sheet metal man went on to lead TAP, Head Start

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:11:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

As a young boy in a deeply segregated South, Osborne Payne earned his spending money by shining other people's shoes.

He got back on his knees each night before bed.

"Oh, Lord, may you make something out of my life," he'd pray.

And whether it was by grace, luck or personal passion — or perhaps a mixture of all three — he did.

Payne, a son of Roanoke who went on to become an entrepreneur, philanthropist and father, died Nov. 27 of Alzheimer's disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Columbia, Md.

He was 87.

The winds of good fortune sent him across the Southeast United States and halfway around the globe, where a passion for progress helped him help others.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Crash near Daleville leaves trucker shaken

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:02:00 +0000

A Georgia truck driver and her partner emerged unhurt after their rig went off the road near Daleville.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

Linda Wellborn, a 26-year veteran of the American road, doesn't know if she can climb back into the cab of a tractor-trailer.

She will, she says, but only to overcome the fear she experienced Tuesday morning, when she crashed a red Peterbilt on U.S. 11 in Botetourt County, near Daleville. The truck overturned, landed on a fence and nearly hit a utility pole.

Michael Kinzie heard the bang from his nearby farmhouse. It didn't sound like the usual clang he'd hear from a passing train.

"I came out and I said, 'Oh, good night!' " Kinzie said.

When he and his dog, Daisy, walked up to the scene, Wellborn and her passenger, Paul Turner, both of Shannon, Ga., were climbing out of the wreckage. They were unscathed.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Jury finds Roanoke man guilty of first-degree murder

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:54:00 +0000

Gene Anthony Brown was convicted of killing security guard Steve Orange.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

Gene Anthony Brown flashed a Crips gang sign as the jury delivered its verdict Friday night, his response to a first-degree murder conviction that could keep him behind bars well into his 60s.

After more than nine hours of deliberation in Roanoke Circuit Court, the jury found Brown, 29, of Roanoke guilty in the July 2011 shooting death of Steve E. Orange, 46. Jurors also convicted Brown of a single charge of use of a firearm in commission of murder.

Though only a recommendation, the jury asked that Judge Jonathan Apgar sentence Brown to prison for a total of 38 years.

The court emptied at 10:15 p.m., drawing to a close a four-day trial into the case that started on a warm summer night more than a year prior.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Volunteer shortage puts residents at risk

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:59:00 +0000

Rescue and fire departments say the economy and a cultural shift may be contributing to the flat or declining numbers of volunteers.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

A thinning in the ranks of regional volunteer fire and rescue squads has prompted concern among public safety officials in the Roanoke Valley, mirroring a national trend that poses serious implications for local volunteer efforts to respond to 911 calls.

At the surface, the numbers look pretty dire. But peel away the layers and an even bleaker reality comes into view. As smaller squads grapple with a growing call volume, they also weigh the effects of an underlying cultural shift, one that threatens to disrupt long-held traditions in volunteer stations.

Roanoke County Fire and Rescue Chief Rick Burch already has seen the effects on his own department. In his most recent presentation to the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, Burch reported numbers that show an eroding volunteer staff and little sign things will change.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Troubled marriage ends with murder-suicide in Cave Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 12:50:00 +0000

A longtime nurse was shot in her southwest Roanoke County home by her estranged husband, who then killed himself.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

A burst of gunfire broke the calm of a leafy Cave Spring neighborhood Wednesday, aimed at a woman who twice sought court protection from the man police said pulled the trigger, killing her and then himself.

The commotion alarmed nearby neighbors, who dialed Roanoke County police at 8:42p.m. Officers arrived in the 5900 block of Sunnycrest Road within minutes, but remained for hours, analyzing the scene to determine what had happened.

Police said their investigation indicated that Ronald W. Billings, 49, had fired the shot that killed his estranged wife, Sandra Kay Edwards, 61, then turned the gun on himself. At the time, the couple was still awaiting a hearing in Roanoke County Circuit Court to finalize a divorce, records show.

Thursday morning revealed the extent of the violence. There was a bullet hole near the front door and in a window, and the glass in a storm door was shattered. Next to it, a simple sign read "Bless this home."

Read the story at The Roanoke Times.

Lynchburg father reflects on life of girl who was fatally abused

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 01:04:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

Sitting alone in a chilly Roanoke McDonald’s, Jonathan Craft looked into the screen of his phone, into the eyes of a baby.

“They said her heart was really strong,” Craft said, his voice soft and careful.

He spoke in the past tense, but his daughter’s heart never lost its strength. Even at the tragic end of her 13-month life, Veralee Craft’s last act — that of an organ donor — would be a kind one.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Botetourt Co. sheriff says Buchanan fire chief complicated event

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 02:14:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

The chief of the Buchanan Volunteer Fire Department could face criminal charges after taking reports of a shooting Wednesday night into his own hands, authorities said.

Botetourt County Sheriff Ronnie Sprinkle on Friday said Volunteer Fire Chief Billy Joe Carter complicated a sheriff's office response to gunshots at a house in the 400 block of Fourth Street when he went to the scene without approval.

Deputies had been dispatched to the house about 10:30 p.m. after a fight between a man and his wife escalated, prompting a neighbor to dial 911.

Authorities later charged former Buchanan volunteer firefighter and Iraq War veteran Steven Patrick Prease, 33, with two counts of capital attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and one count of capital attempted murder of other persons.

...

On Friday, Carter said Prease had recently stopped working as a firefighter and had been struggling following his time overseas. He said he was trying to help Prease.

"I wasn't working with the sheriff's office because the sheriff's office didn't want my help," Carter said. "I was doing it as a friend. But more I was doing it as a brother. You don't forget who you ride with."

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

A bit of ice, a puff of breeze can make all the difference

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 02:12:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

An ice pack held close to her forehead, Connie Crumpacker shielded her eyes from the afternoon sun and motioned to a cluster of empty fuel pumps.

No electricity. No gas.

Like so many other spots across the Roanoke Valley, the Edgewood Street Shell station Crumpacker helps manage went dark Friday, following an evening windstorm. Since then, the business has been cash-only.

Crumpacker sat on the curb outside the store Sunday, insisting it was cooler there than inside. A cashier, Sarah Blevins, emerged with her own ice pack and sat next to her.

"We're just out here roostin' in front of the store," Crumpacker said, "with what little bit of ice we got."

Similar stories could be found across the city, as sweaty people with tired faces descended in droves upon the restaurants, gas stations and hardware stores with power. Some struck out to find generators, ice and batteries, others sought respite from a sweltering 90-degree heat.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Police use pepper spray to break up fights at Roanoke carnival

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Tue, 22 May 2012 03:03:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

Roanoke police last weekend resorted to pepper-spraying raucous packs of Drew Expo carnivalgoers who swarmed the Roanoke Civic Center parking lot, peeling off their shirts and fighting, authorities said.

Police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said Monday that officers were called to the civic center Friday and Saturday nights to quell unruly crowds who threw punches and ignored officers’ orders to disperse.

Johnson said the instigators -- who continuously dashed around the parking lot -- started more than 30 fights Friday night, forcing the carnival to close early and sending home the 4,000 to 5,000 people who turned out for the event. Four off-duty Roanoke police officers were providing security at the carnival Friday night; five were working off-duty Saturday night, Johnson said. Each night, about five additional on-duty police officers responded to the scene, she said.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Unnatural highs with synthetic drugs are brutal and legal

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:17:00 +0000

Packets of potent drugs can be bought in the area for $25, but the price could prove much steeper.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

It took a broken neck to break Walter Roden's habit - in a plunge from the second story of a Melrose Avenue house.

Roden, high on drugs at the time, said that the building was on fire, that the heat sent him diving out a window. It wasn't until later, in a hospital, that he learned there had been no flames. Not even smoke.

"I'm a grown man," he said Tuesday. "I should have known better."

He blames himself, but he also mentioned the half-gram vial of powder he had snorted: Amped, one incarnation of the dozens of synthetic drugs sold across the region in convenience stores to buyers who know to ask.

Augusta County authorities were among the first in the state to express concern over such synthetic drugs in December 2010. Now, agencies in and around the Roanoke Valley are banding together to tackle the same concern. Local prosecutors, medical professionals and leaders from multiple law enforcement agencies will announce today their plans for combatting what they describe as an increasing problem, authorities said.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Salem woman still missing after 2 years

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Sun, 13 May 2012 20:52:00 +0000

Two years ago, Joan Cook stepped out of her house. She has never been heard from again.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

SALEM — Diane Beason was cooking dinner in her Salem home when she heard the name come across the television news.

"I just couldn't believe it," Beason said. "You could have knocked me over with a feather."

A frantic series of phone calls among friends and family followed. The name "Joan Cook" echoed dozens of times over, even onto a stack of missing person posters later put up across the city. The efforts would be fruitless, though — desperate attempts to resolve what has become a two-year mystery.

Even today, the narrative of Cook's disappearance remains riddled with lingering questions. Seasoned detectives describe the case as one that's never gone cold, but hasn't produced any new or substantive leads, either.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Roanoke revels in its railroad heritage

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Sun, 13 May 2012 20:50:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

It used to be a downtown sound, that loud baritone belch, ricocheting off brick buildings while steam and smoke and dust drifted lazily from the Roanoke rail yard.

It quieted, though, as trains modernized and noise ordinances took hold, but downtown residents and late commuters heard those train whistles again Friday, for the first time in 18 years.

Mostly gray-haired folks found their way to the train tracks behind the Virginia Museum of Transportation to watch as ruddy-faced men in denim overalls tugged on ropes, channeling steam from the No. 17 locomotive and up through a series of whistles. A smattering of children watched, too, their hands clamped tight over their ears.

A passing train — a modern cousin of No. 17 — let out an appreciative toot. The engineer leaned out of his window and waved.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Hotshot firefighters battle six fires in three counties

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:46:00 +0000

U.S. Forest Service teams are busy trying to contain the flames in Botetourt, Craig and Alleghany counties.

BY CHASE PURDY
The Roanoke Times

The radio crackled, breaking the silence of a lunchtime rest to send a small squad of firefighters back to work.

For eight members of the Augusta Hotshots, it meant packing up in a haze of gray smoke. They paused before their ascent, a steep and winding trek to the top of Potts Mountain.

They weren't alone. All along the mountain on Monday, about 35 U.S. Forest Service firefighters battled 1,000 acres of fire, said to have ignited over the weekend on Cove Mountain in Botetourt County and along Barbours Creek in Craig County. Fires have spread since to Alleghany County.

Read the rest of the story at The Roanoke Times.

Mother Suspected of Killing Her Son Found at Tampa Airport

noreply@blogger.com (Chase) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:52:00 +0000

BY CHASE PURDY
The Ledger

Authorities found her alone, sitting in her minivan on the fourth floor of an airport parking lot, contemplating suicide.

In her conversations with detectives later, Neha Patel confessed outright, authorities said.

She slapped him.
She drowned him.
She said she hated him.

It was the death of 1-year-old Ishan Patel that sparked Polk County authorities' day-long search for the woman, charged late Friday with first-degree murder of her own child.

Deputies with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office took Patel, 32, of South Lakeland, into custody, after Tampa International Airport police discovered her in the parking garage. The arrest came nearly 11 hours after Neha Patel presented the body of the dead child to her husband, Rasesh B. Patel, 33, while next to the child's crib in their home, authorities said.

Read the rest of the story at The Ledger.