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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 3, 1994                   TAG: 9403030024
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-9   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON
DATELINE: SHAWSVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

STOLEN TRUCK FOUND; FUGITIVE STILL SUSPECTED

A red pickup truck stolen from a house on Cumberland Drive in Christiansburg was found with the keys inside Tuesday on Alleghany Springs Road in Montgomery County near the Meadowbrook Nursing Home, police said.

Fugitive Billy Joe Hampton remains a suspect in the theft.

"He has a history of stealing vehicles, so we certainly can't rule him out," said Sgt. Curtis Cook of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

The truck - along with four pistols, four shotguns, a television, VCR and other items - was stolen from the Christiansburg home Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

A person who used to give Hampton rides to work lives near the house that was burglarized, Sgt. Gary Brumfield of the Christiansburg Police Department said Sunday.

No stolen items were found inside the truck Tuesday, police said.

Hampton, 35, of Christiansburg, is a suspect in an auto theft, abduction and rape in Beckley, W.Va., and a carjacking, an abduction and a malicious wounding in Montgomery County, all of which occurred last Wednesday and Thursday.

Hampton, a paroled murderer, also has been indicted by a Pulaski County grand jury on malicious wounding charges in the beating of Robert H. "Bobby" McDaniel in November.

by CNB