BOTETOURT WOMAN INDICTED IN 1991 DEATH OF BOYFRIEND

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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993                   TAG: 9303040238
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
BOTETOURT WOMAN INDICTED IN 1991 DEATH OF BOYFRIEND
A Buchanan woman was indicted on a murder charge by a Bedford County grand jury Tuesday in connection with the death of her boyfriend in 1991.
Nellie Sue Whitt, 44, was arrested at her home several hours after the indictment was issued. She was being held without bond in the Bedford County Jail.
The indictment came after a 20-month investigation by state police into the death of Whitt's boyfriend, Roy Willard Thompson, in July 1991.
Thompson, 45, was killed when he was hit by his own pickup truck, driven by Whitt, on Virginia 670 less than a half-mile from U.S. 221 near the Goode section of Bedford County.
At the time, Whitt told the state trooper investigating the fatality that Thompson jumped from an embankment into the road and she was unable to stop the pickup before hitting him.
The trooper, however, suspected otherwise and asked for assistance from the state police Violent Crimes Investigative Unit. The investigation culminated 20 months later with the grand jury indictment.
Barry Keesee of the unit in Salem would not elaborate on details of the case. He said the length of the investigation was not unusual.
Whitt and Thompson had lived together in Buchanan and had moved to Botetourt County from Bedford County a short time before he was killed. In Bedford County, they had lived in the Peaksview Trailer Park on U.S. 460 between Bedford and Lynchburg.
An arraignment for Whitt has been scheduled for next Wednesday in Bedford County Circuit Court.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB