Under the Trestle by Ron Peterson Jr

Author:Ron Peterson Jr. [Ron Peterson, Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781532063503
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2018-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

Arrest

Immediately following the “True Bill” of indictment from the grand jury, the arrest warrant for Epperly was approved. Since the grand jury deliberation is a closed-door proceeding, surprise would be on the Commonwealth’s side.

To his credit, Richard Lee Lawrence sensed this moment coming. A week earlier, he had advised Epperly to move back to Roanoke. If the Virginia authorities had to go all the way to Ohio to arrest him, it would not be a good look. Much better optics to be arrested locally. So four days earlier, on September 5th, Epperly had moved back to his friend’s house in Roanoke.

The morning after the indictment, on Tuesday, September 9th, a state police team, led by Special Agent Walt Wilmore, headed to Roanoke to make the arrest. “Take his feet off the ground” is the expression police like to use.

Wilmore grew up a little ways down the valley in Rockbridge County, near Lexington. He did not go to college and seems proud of that fact.

“I went to high school at a time and a place where a high school education really meant something,” Wilmore, now in his 70’s recently said. “Then I went to work for the state police and that is when my education really began.”

As a young officer, Wilmore showed great instincts, amazing his superiors with an uncanny knack for evaluating situations, tracking down evidence and solving cases. He became a Special Investigator; and if there was a tough felony case anywhere in the western part of Virginia, Wilmore was usually involved.

His work on another famous case is legendary. Wilmore led a team investigating the 1984 shooting deaths of two hunters in Bland County. The bodies were found on Big Walker Mountain with gunshot wounds from .45 caliber slugs. Wilmore and other state policemen searched the rugged mountain in freezing weather for three days, on their hands and knees, looking for evidence. Finally, on the third day, they found five bullet casings which matched the .45 caliber rounds in the victims. Fingerprints from the casings identified the suspect, 28-year old Lawrence Grayson Morehead, who fled Virginia. A national manhunt ensued.

Wilmore, who spins a great yarn, picks up the story from here.

“We track him, first to Oregon and then to the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. Another officer and I go to Louisiana and learn he’s out in the Gulf working on a commercial boat that services oil rigs, due back in a couple days. We search his car, parked at the dock and find the murder weapon. It’s a .45 caliber Thompson Submachine Gun replica. We take the gun into evidence, ballistics checks it and it’s a match. We’ve got our guy — it’s just a matter of waiting for him to come back from the boat trip.

“We have the dock staked-out and his boat comes back a few days later in the middle of the night. We spot the suspect at his car, walk up and identify ourselves as police officers. He says, ‘I’m sure glad ya’ll are here. Somebody stole my gun from my car.

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