Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993 TAG: 9303060052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
INSURANCE POLICY CITED AS MOTIVE
Eight days before Roy Willard Thompson was killed in 1991, he changed the beneficiary of his $100,000 life insurance policy - to the woman who ran him over in his own pickup truck.Further, according to court records, Thompson didn't sign the beneficiary change himself. His signature was forged.
That policy was Nellie Sue Whitt's motive for killing Thompson, said Bedford County Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Updike at Whitt's bond hearing Friday in Bedford Circuit Court.
Whitt, who was indicted on a first-degree murder charge earlier this week, says Thompson's death was accidental. Thompson, 45, was killed July 13, 1991, when he was hit by Whitt on Virginia 670 in Bedford County.
Updike did not elaborate on the insurance policy motive, saying further details would come out at Whitt's trial, which has not been scheduled. State police investigated Thompson's death for 20 months before Whitt was indicted.
In a court petition filed by Pan-American Life Insurance Co. in Bedford Circuit Court, Pan-American claims that Whitt forged Thompson's signature on an insurance form that names her as the beneficiary of his $100,000 accidental-death policy.
The company, in the petition, said it received the form on July 5, 1991 - eight days before Thompson was killed. And on the form, Whitt was listed as Thompson's fiancee, the company said.
Whitt, 44, and Thompson were romantically involved at the time and living together in the Botetourt County town of Buchanan, where Whitt is still a resident.
Pan-American has petitioned Bedford Circuit Judge William Sweeney to block Whitt from collecting the $100,000 policy. Whitt tried to claim the insurance money in September 1991.
Pan-American argues first that the policy is invalid because Whitt forged Thompson's signature. Pan-American also claims Whitt killed Thompson to collect on the policy, which would make her claim on the money invalid as well.
In a response filed by Whitt's attorney, Rodney Fitzpatrick of Roanoke, Whitt says Thompson did designate her as his beneficiary and gave her permission to forge his signature on the insurance forms.
She also denies that Thompson's death was intentional.
The court file includes a report from a clinical social worker in Lynchburg, Cristina Pacho, who evaluated Thompson in April 1991. She said that Thompson and Whitt, who accompanied him for the evaluation, had been a couple since the previous October.
They appeared "very invested in each other and both reported that their relationship was a strong and positive one. Mr. Thompson appears to have become emotionally dependent on Sue and looks to her for support," Pacho wrote.
At the time, Thompson was suffering from depression, resulting from his separation from his estranged wife, Patsy Robertson of Farmville, and a strained relationship with their two sons, Pacho reported. Thompson was on a leave of absence from B&W Nuclear Services Co. Inc. of Lynchburg and eventually was fired.
Whitt has four children. Two of them are school age and live at home, she told Sweeney at Friday's bond hearing. She said she has been married and divorced three times and is engaged to marry again. She is originally from Tazewell County.
Her first marriage lasted 15 years, she said. Her second lasted a month. Her most recent marriage in December 1991 lasted five days. Whitt said she has ties to the Buchanan community, where her fiance also lives, and assured the court that if released on bond she would not flee.
She said she works for her fiance's air-conditioning business.
Sweeney set bond at $25,000 cash or $35,000 property. Friday evening, Whitt had not posted bond and remained in custody at the Bedford County Jail.