Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991 TAG: 9103190116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Everywhere in Virginia, there seem to be bones, or near bones. They are the leftovers of human beings, what is left behind after rain, wind, sun and critters have their way.
It's a grisly thought, but bones, human bones, have apparently replaced Dr Pepper cans as the most common roadside detritus. Convenience is all-important in our time, and the most convenient place to dump our victims is alongside the road.
Along a busy stretch of Interstate 95 south of Washington, D.C., there were four or five bodies found in a two-week period not long ago.
"Happens all the time during hunting season," said Lt. W.D. Carter, stationed in Culpeper. "Some squirrel hunter always walks up on something."
The troopers got to talking. Since the bodies always were found by accident, by some unsuspecting squirrel hunter, why not send out the pros? Why not unleash state police officers, and dogs, and scour the roadsides for human remains?
And so they did.
A couple of weeks ago, they set out, on foot.
"They found a motorcycle helmet," said Carter. "A license plate. Stuff like that."
"If we had found a body or two, we'd be searching every inch of median between here and California by now," he said.
They didn't, and it was somewhat of a relief, Carter admitted.
It's not nice, not even for a cop, to think that there are more human knee caps than ragweed plants along our highways.
Still, we Western Virginians have had our problems with bodies.
Why, just a few years ago, a man hanged himself right near Interstate 81's Exit 43 at Hollins. He was a few feet off the ramp, said J.T. Oliver, an assistant special agent for the state police in Salem. Nobody saw him for months.
"He was within spitting distance of the stop sign," said Oliver.
Still, with skeletons hanging from tree limbs, there are no plans to search the I-81 corridor like the I-95 graveyard.
"It wouldn't be too bad," according to Oliver. "It would just be a matter of walking the 300 miles of roadway we cover."
A state police helicopter flew the routes not long ago, looking for specific parts. Of humans.
The aerial surveillance came up blessedly skull-less. Not so much as a femur.
"It would be nice if we could say that on such-and-such a date, we were going to search all the woods and brush in Virginia," said Carter in Culpeper. "There are an awful lot of missing people."
But - for better or for worse - we can't search every inch. Just the convenient spots alongside the highways, and they have churned up a nasty, if fertile, yield.
For now, there will be no systematic approach to the search for bones, even though we know they're out there.
High technology is for other fields.
Body hunts will continue to rely, for now, on squirrel hunters.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on Friday, March 22, 1991 as part of Ed Shamy's Column\ correction
misidentified a speaker.
I thought I was speaking on the telephone with J.T. Oliver at the state police office division headquarters in Salem. I quoted him in a column on Tuesday.
Obviously, I misunderstood. I wasn't speaking with Oliver. Had never spoken to Oliver at all, as far as he knew. About anything.
And indeed I didn't. I was speaking to Jim Ruhland, also an assistant special agent in charge.
Memo: correction