Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 21, 1994 TAG: 9405230163
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Donald Wayne Nelson, 58, the owner and operator of Well-Drilling in Galax, was arrested Monday by Lancaster detectives and charged with two counts of homicide, according to a press release from the Lancaster County district attorney.
Nelson is accused of setting up a burglary that resulted in the deaths of Mary Swarr, 87, and her brother, Horace Swarr, 81, in 1979.
Nelson, released Tuesday on $100,000 bail, could not be reached for comment. His wife, Marie Nelson, said they had been instructed by their attorney, Fred Werth, not to speak about the case. Werth also declined comment.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, one or more persons entered the Swarr residence Sept. 10, 1979, stole an unknown quantity of old coins and left the Swarrs bound and gagged on the floor.
An anonymous phone caller, since identified as one of the men who entered the house, alerted police to the crime but gave the wrong address. The Swarrs were not found until seven days later. Mary Swarr was already dead from dehydration and malnutrition; her husband died the next day.
Police believe Nelson, who was in a romantic relationship with Ann Swarr, the victims' niece, set up the burglary based on information he got from her about the couple.
In 1989, four Maryland men were convicted of second-degree murder in the case.
The affidavit states that Nelson's name was mentioned in the trial by John Askew, one of the defendants, who testified that Nelson called him the night of the robbery to say they had "pulled it off ... I monitored the whole thing."
Lancaster police knew of Nelson's whereabouts as early as June 1990, when detectives interviewed him. During the interview, Nelson admitted knowing Ann and Greg Swarr, as well as Askew and a man named George "Bud" Burkhardt, the affidavit says.
Burkhardt, one of the men convicted in 1989, began cooperating with the police in April, saying that Nelson and Askew recruited him to drive a van to haul loot from the scene, according to the affidavit.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***