"Always A Dull Moment" is not how I really describe my life, but I thought it was really cool title for a blog. Cool because I don't normally have exciting things happen in my life. Well during my last trip to WV to visit family and friends (and to geocache!) that all changed.
It started with a story I heard on the local news about a new lead on a cold murder case. My home town, while small has more than its fair share of murders and any lead on a cold case would really put minds at ease. I heard this story either Sunday night or Monday morning before my geocaching buddies picked me up for our long day of geocaching at Mingo Park in PA. On the way back, one of the geocaching crew received a phone call and while I was not paying attention to it, I did notice he spent a lot more time on the call than he normally would. He told me it had to do with cold case but that was all he was able to say at that time.
The next morning, I received a call from my friend telling me to stay tuned to the local TV station for a press conference. He gave me the gist of the story but no details. I missed the press conference but was able to catch the 6 PM news and got the shock of my life. A man whom I knew from my teenage years had been implicated in severak arsons and murders. They were linking the murders, calling the man a "serial" killer.
At first I was not sure it was the same person. No photo was used at the time and no other info other than DOB was offered. It sure sounded like the guy I knew, but I was not sure. Not sure, that is until they mentioned the location where they were looking for more bodies. The name of the road was the same as the e-mail address of someone I knew...the killer's brother. Well that was enough evidence for me.
Still reeling from this news I checked my Facebook page and noticed a couple of posts from friends and family of the killer. I wanted to say something but what do you say in a situation like this?
From the best that I can tell, the series of events is as follows:
Jimbo (the killer) recorded an audio cassette and delivered it to the local police station. On the cassette, he confessed to taking part in four arsons and five murders. To prove he was telling the truth, he gave the location of two of the bodies. When police heard the tape, they tracked him to a nearby motel (one that I had stayed in once in my wild days) under an assumed name. Before police could storm the motel room, Jimbo killed himself with a single gunshot to the head.
Since the suspect killed himself, getting to the bottom of the murders is going to be difficult. They have released very little info at this point but what has been made public is that two of the five bodies have been recovered and both have been women. No motive has been released at this time.
Here is a link to the story. If you care to follow up on this, just use your favorite search engine and search for the words "James Childers Murder West Virginia" and you will get a boatload of hits. Take your pick.
To the family and friends of James "Jimbo" Childers, my thoughts and prayers are with you.
For the record, I was pretty good friends with a couple of Jimbo's siblings...one boy and one girl. I only met Jimbo a couple of times.
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