THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 10, 1997 TAG: 9702100144
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 42 lines
Police arrested a Norfolk man early Sunday in connection with the death of another Norfolk man whose body was found on a lonely Pasquotank County road last November.
Virginia State Police are holding Gene Phillip Morris II, 27, in connection with the murder of Daniel Neal Elsberry, 30, said Pasquotank County Sheriff Randy Cartwright.
Morris was arrested without incident about 2 a.m. by agents from the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation and agents from the Tidewater Fugitive Task Force at the request of the Pasquotank sheriff's office and North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation.
The arrest caps a lengthy investigation by the sheriff's department in cooperation with Norfolk investigators.
Elsberry, of the 1300 block of E. Ocean View Ave., was killed by a shotgun blast to the head late Nov. 19 or early Nov. 20. A hunter found his body the afternoon of Nov. 20 on Hersey Sawyer Road about three miles west of Elizabeth City.
The two men had met just a few weeks before Elsberry was killed, Cartwright said. Both were computer enthusiasts and went to Norfolk night spots together.
Cartwright said a dispute between the two men over a laptop computer believed to have been stolen from the victim preceded the killing. Cartwright also said that other property believed to have been stolen from the victim's apartment was found in Morris' possession. Some valuables belonging to Elsberry also have been recovered from Norfolk pawn shops with the help of Norfolk police. Elsberry was reported missing after co-workers contacted his father in Florida when he failed to show up for work.
Morris is being held in the Norfolk city jail without bond pending extradition proceedings. MEMO: Staff writer Lon Wagner contributed to this story.
Story also appeared on page B5 of the Final edition of THE
VIRGINIAN-PILOT.
KEYWORDS: ARREST SHOOTING MURDER