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

DATE: MONDAY, February 28, 1994                   TAG: 9402280105
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

STOLEN TRUCK, WEAPONS MAY BE LINKED TO FUGITIVE

Taking no chances with fugitive Billy Joe Hampton, the Christiansburg Police Department was notifying neighboring counties Sunday night that a red 1991 Dodge Dakota pickup - along with four pistols and four shotguns - was stolen from a home on Cumberland Drive sometime between Friday and Sunday.

Sgt. Gary Brumfield said Sunday night there was only a "slight chance" Hampton stole the truck and firearms along with a television, VCR, a camera and some jewelry, but a red flag was raised when investigators found out that Hampton used to ride to work with a man who lives next door to the home that was burglarized.

"If an officer stops the vehicle, we want them to be aware that [Hampton] could be driving it," Brumfield said.

Police still are searching for a white 1990 Oldsmobile that was taken from two women at the Ironto rest stop on Interstate 81 Thursday. Hampton, 35, of Christiansburg, is a suspect in an auto theft and abduction in Beckley, W.Va., and a carjacking, abduction and malicious wounding in Montgomery County, all of which occurred 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