ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
POLICE CALLED the death of Christopher Lee Wilson, 26, "suspicious." It could be the year's first Roanoke County homicide.
Employees arriving at work Tuesday morning found the body of a mechanic in a Roanoke County automobile repair shop.
Police stopped short of calling the death a homicide, but were investigating it Tuesday as "suspicious," according to Roanoke County police Capt. Ray Lavinder.
The body of Christopher Lee Wilson was discovered about 7 a.m. at General Imports Sales & Service in the 3200 block of Brambleton Avenue in Southwest Roanoke County. Wilson, 26, lived in the Botetourt County community of Blue Ridge.
Lavinder declined to elaborate on how Wilson died, saying only that authorities are awaiting the results of an autopsy expected to be conducted today.
"I guess about all we can say right now is that it's suspicious," he said.
Wilson's body was discovered in the garage area of the auto repair shop, which is affiliated with General Imports Sales & Service on Franklin Road Southwest. The manager of the garage declined to comment Tuesday.
It was not clear how long the body had been in the garage. The business had been closed Sunday and Monday.
A preliminary search of the scene did not reveal any signs of forced entry. But Lavinder said investigators have not ruled out the possibility that someone broke into the building.
As police were investigating what may be Roanoke County's first homicide of the year, authorities in Roanoke were following up on an investigation of the city's last - and the 14th - slaying of 1995.
An autopsy had not been completed on Tuesday, but authorities said 34-year-old Vickie Shantella Ross was shot six times before her body was found Saturday in the back seat of a car left in the 4200 block of Peach Tree Drive Northwest.
Ross' estranged husband, 36-year-old Bryant Ross, has been charged with murder. Vickie Ross was reported missing last Friday after a friend went to her Lancelot Lane Northwest apartment to take her to a party. Police found what appeared to be blood inside and outside the apartment, and the friend told police she had seen Bryant Ross driving away from the area when she arrived.
Vickie Ross was found dead the next day in her mother's car.
Although Roanoke reported only four murders in 1994, the city's average over the past decade has been 12 a year.
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