Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 5, 1995                   TAG: 9508070049
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM and ROBERT FRIES
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

GIRLFRIEND CHARGED IN FLOYD COUNTY SLAYING

Virginia Denise Lomax, 41, also is charged with use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, Floyd County Sheriff Tom Higgins said.

Around noon a Floyd County Sheriff's deputy found Daniel Westley McPeak, 25, lying on the lawn in front of his house on Virginia 682 about a mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway, Higgins said. Deputies arrested Lomax on the scene. She did not resist, Higgins said.

Lomax was being held in the Floyd County jail Friday night in lieu of $100,000 bond.

Higgins said investigators also recovered from the house a pistol that is believed to be the murder weapon.

McPeak, Lomax and Lomax's mother all lived in the house where the slaying took place, Higgins said. Investigators still were not sure Friday night whether Lomax's mother was in the house at the time of the shooting.

It was the third homicide in Floyd County this year. All three have been domestic crimes. On April 30, Vera Alreda Goad, 56, of Willis was shot to death and Wesley Ray Sowers, 41, of Riner was charged. And on June 14, Ellen Marjorie Plocki, 18, of Austinville was beaten to death; David Joel Hall was charged with her death.

The last homicide in Floyd County before Goad's was in August 1993, when a man shot and killed his wife.

Keywords:
FATALITY