Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 22, 1993 TAG: 9309220109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLATWOODS LENGTH: Medium
Investigators appear to be operating on the assumption that Phadra Dannielle Carter is dead. She has not been seen since 2 or 3 a.m. Saturday. Among themselves, they talk about looking for her body.
But Botetourt Sheriff Reed Kelly said Tuesday afternoon, "I don't guess you ever give up hope until you know for sure."
Today, authorities will bring in cadets from Virginia Military Institute in Lexington to help with the search. The hunt is focusing around Switzer Mountain and White Church roads - Virginia 666 and 667 - north of Fincastle.
Law-enforcement officers were asking for help from the public.
"Keep your eyes open," Botetourt Capt. G.W. Guilliams asked one local resident who stopped by in a pickup truck. "If you see anything unusual, give us a holler."
Authorities believe that Phadra was brought to Botetourt this past weekend after she was taken from her home in Rockbridge County.
Kelly said one resident called the Botetourt Sheriff's Department and reported seeing the man who has been charged in her abduction, William R. Layne, in the Flatwoods section during the day on Saturday.
Kelly asked people to report "anything out of the ordinary that they may have seen this weekend; anything unusual they may have heard; any suspicions they have. We'd be glad to hear from them."
Much of the search has focused on woods off Switzer Mountain Road. Monday morning, two Botetourt deputies were driving along the road - which is near where Layne lived with a brother - and saw what appeared to be "drag marks" leading down a dirt road and into the oaks and maples.
Investigators found clothing and what they say appeared to be blood and a weapon.
Investigators have gone over that area, cordoned off by a yellow police line, again and again, finding evidence of what they believe was a brutal assault.
"We've combed a half-mile-square area, combed it virtually on our knees," Kelly said.
On Tuesday afternoon, deputies from Botetourt and Rockbridge counties broadened their search by checking abandoned farms and houses and isolated spots where a car might pull off the road.
They were looking for "obvious places where somebody might hide a body," Kelly said.
At midafternoon they searched the home of Billy Layne's brother, Ronald Layne. They took four brown grocery bags of Billy Layne's belongings and other items "that may or may not be evidence," Kelly said.
Kelly emphasized that Ronald Layne "is in no way implicated" in what happened; Billy Layne just happened to have been living with him off and on.
Evidence technicians from Botetourt, Rockbridge and Roanoke counties and the Virginia State Police are working on the case. Tuesday night, investigators planned to comb Layne's car with a high-tech light that identifies particles that cannot be seen by the human eye.
Today, the ground search will grow wider. Lines of officers will walk from roadways "and just go until we run into dead ends - on the theory that maybe, maybe she didn't go far off the road," Kelly said.
Investigators still believe they will find Phadra within a few miles.
"If we get to this time tomorrow and we haven't found anything," Kelly said late Tuesday afternoon, "then we'll try something different."
by CNB