Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In May, a judge convicted Dan Richard Grigsby of first-degree murder and using a gun in a felony. Grigsby faced 20 years to life in prison for killing Dolly Rose Grigsby, 42.
Last summer, according to testimony, Dan Grigsby took his wife to the Tub Run area of Craig County. As the couple walked along a remote area of the forest, Grigsby left his wife, returning to his truck to retreive his pistol.
As she walked farther into the forest, Grigsby shot his wife in the chest and the back. He wrapped her body in a green blanket, dug a shallow grave and covered the body with rocks.
Grigsby returned to his Buchanan County home, notifying authorities that his wife was missing. He publicized her disappearance by offering a $5,000 reward. He grieved to his friends. He cooperated with police, agreeing to take a polygraph test.
But to his family, he confided that he had shot his wife and buried her near a Craig County cabin. Then he enlisted the help of his brother, Kenneth Grigsby, and his brother's friend Mickey Breeding.
Breeding drove Kenneth and Dan Grigsby to the Tub Run area on three occasions to cut up Dolly Rose Grigsby's remains. In October, Breeding led investigators to the burial sites. Investigators uncovered her body in two separate areas of the forest. Her skull was hidden elsewhere.
Just before his brother's trial, Kenneth Grigsby told investigators where they could find the skull: in his father's garden.
Kenneth Grigsby was convicted in June of being an accessory after the fact and sentenced to 12 months in jail. Breeding was charged with being an accessory before the fact, a misdemeanor. In June, the charge against him was dismissed because of his help in solving the case, Cox said.
Since the murder was committed before Jan. 1, when Virginia's no-parole law went into effect, Dan Grigsby, who was 43 at the time of the killing, will be eligible for parole in about 14 years.
by CNB