Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993 TAG: 9306160023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
A crane was used to haul the car of Paul Freeman, 85, a retired minister, and his wife, Rebecca, 76, out of a 60-foot ravine off U.S. 11.
Joe DeWilde, who lives in a trailer court near where the car was found, just inside the western town limits of Wytheville, said he dreamed several nights ago that it might be in that area.
He walked along the edge of the divided highway bordering the ravine and glimpsed part of the maroon and white car beneath the trees and brush, he said. He went to Duck's Grocery on U.S. 11 and called the Wytheville Police Department shortly after 8 a.m.
"They've looked since it happened and nobody else had seen it," Wytheville Capt. Larry E. Groseclose said. "Just one little rose bush there was turned up a little bit."
Searchers included members of Faith Tabernacle Church, where Freeman formerly had been a pastor; friends and neighbors of the family; rescue squad members; and others who spent Saturday and Sunday combing the area on foot. Authorities also searched by helicopter.
"We searched all through this area Sunday. I don't know how we missed that," said Thomas "Dooley" Seagle, who lives near the accident scene.
State police 1st Sgt. David Shaver said the car apparently was coming north toward Wytheville on U.S. 11, veered off into the grassy median and across the southbound lanes over the embankment.
Rebecca Freeman had been driving. There were no skid marks, leading authorities to speculate that she might have suffered a medical problem.
Dr. Michael H. Stoker, the medical examiner, said that was a possibility based on his examination before the bodies were sent to Roanoke for autopsies.
Before the car was found, there had been concern that the Freemans were victms of foul play. "All the preliminary indications are that it was simply an accident," Stoker said.
One factor that threw off searchers was that the car was coming toward town, away from the couple's home in the Windy Way subdivision.
People had reported seeing them at a Wytheville grocery store the night of June 8, shortly before they were reported missing, and it was assumed they were on their way home. Shaver said they visited grocery stores almost daily, and it may be that those who reported seeing them that night simply got the day wrong. There were no groceries in the car.
Knowing now that the car was northbound, police were able to find where it clipped the edge of a sign before crossing the median and to trace faint tire indentations where it crossed the grass. It apparently went between a highway sign and the end of a guard rail, touching neither before plunging into the gorge.
The car landed upright, straddling a creek. The impact jammed its doors shut so tightly that rescuers were unable to pry them open where the car had fallen without disturbing the bodies.
The crane was brought from Marion to haul up the car with the bodies still inside to preserve the evidence and to put the vehicle where authorities could work on it more easily.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB