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| White woman was found in a ravine |
Henry County Sheriff’s Office investigators spent the early hours Sunday morning investigating a body found on Powell Road near the North Carolina line. The scene is shown above. (Bulletin photo by Mike Wray) |
Monday, September 15, 2008
By GINNY WRAY - Bulletin Staff Writer
Police believe they know the identity of a body found in a ravine in Ridgeway on Saturday night, but they are awaiting a medical examiner’s report to confirm it, according to the Henry County Sheriff’s Office.
“It appears to be a white female,” and if the suspected identity is confirmed, she was 36 years old and lived near the Powell Road area where her body was found Saturday night, said Lt. Kimmy Nester.
“However, we have to wait for a positive identification from the medical examiner,” he added.
Nester said it appears the body was discarded down the ravine off Powell Road near the North Carolina line.
“The discovery of the body and the circumstances are extremely suspicious,” he said. “We believe it may be that foul play was involved or it could be a death that occurred in another location. If foul play occurred, the injuries to the body may have occurred at a different location.
He did not elaborate on the type of injuries.
“Whatever occurred was at a different location,” Nester said, adding that was determined through experience and an evaluation of the scene.
Articles found at the scene led officers to develop a name of a possible victim, Nester said. Their investigation then led to the possible victim’s mother, who lives in Eden, N.C.
Officers talked to her and learned that the possible victim had been married within a year, Nester said. The woman and her husband lived on Powell Road not far from where the body was found, he said.
“We spoke at length with the husband. He reports she was last seen Monday (Sept. 8) about 4 a.m.,” when she left their home, Nester said, adding that the man cooperated with police. “He did not know her whereabouts and did not report her missing.”
An autopsy is expected to be done at the state medical examiner’s office in Roanoke, and results should be known today or Tuesday, said sheriff’s office Major Steve Eanes.
Nester added that determining the cause of death may take longer because of the decomposition of the body.
“There was nothing investigators noticed right off” to indicate what killed the woman, Eanes said.
“We are anxiously awaiting the results of the medical examiner’s report,” he said.
The woman’s body was found Saturday evening. A resident of the Powell Road neighborhood had noticed an unusual or suspicious odor there for several days but could not tell where it was coming from, Nester said Saturday night.
Earlier that day, the woman noticed buzzards flying over the area, Nester said. She went outside, looked down an embankment on Powell Road and saw what appeared to be a body, he said.
Because of the area’s close proximity to the North Carolina line, she alerted the Rockingham County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office, which notified the Henry County Sheriff’s Office. Officers with the two agencies worked on the case Saturday night.
Henry County took its mobile command center to the scene, and officers wore air packs provided by the Ridgeway Rescue Squad to get to the victim. They reached her by 10:30 p.m. Saturday and as of 1 a.m. Sunday, they still had not turned the body over or attempted to remove it from the ravine.
Eanes said he stayed at the scene until around 8:30 a.m. Sunday; others left about an hour later.
Anyone with information about the case, any possible missing person or any suspicious vehicles or people in the Powell Road area in the past week is asked to contact the Henry County Sheriff’s Office or their local law enforcement agency, the officers said. |
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