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

DATE: SUNDAY, November 6, 1994                   TAG: 9411070065
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOST RIVER, W. VA                                 LENGTH: Medium

SUSPECT BELIEVED SON WAS POSSESSED

A father who shot his son to death in their isolated Hardy County community believed himself to be the messiah and his son to be possessed by demons, neighbors and police say.

Gary Whetzel, 47, of Lost River was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Christopher Whetzel, 20, Sgt. Roger Hefner in Moorefield said Friday.

Authorities found the younger Whetzel dead Wednesday in a field near the home he shared with his parents, Hefner said. He apparently died while fleeing, he said.

Authorities say the younger Whetzel was shot at least twice in the back with a 7 mm rifle. Bullets were also found in his truck and inside the home, Hefner said.

The elder Whetzel, who works in a metal factory in Broadway, Va., was arrested without incident when he called police moments after Wednesday's shooting, Hefner said.

Hefner said the elder Whetzel told him the killing was a necessary religious sacrifice.

``He got real religious in the last couple of weeks,'' said neighbor Ronald Wilson. ``He was always talking about the demons and that. He apparently said, `I hate to do this, but I have to save your soul.'''

The elder Whetzel became intensely religious about three months ago, carrying a Bible everywhere and watching only religious programming on television, Hefner said, adding that the elder Whetzel believed God spoke to him Tuesday.

``He apparently believes that he was the son of God and that the world was coming to an end,'' Hefner said. ``I think he also believed that his house would turn to gold and it would become the place people would come to be saved.''

The elder Whetzel had talked of returning to the Timberville, Va., Church of the Brethren, which the family attended for several years in the 1970s and 1980s, said the Rev. Bernie Fuska, pastor of the 250-member congregation.

Fuska said parishioners told him last week that Gary Whetzel had experienced a sudden spiritual renewal and wanted to return.

He said Whetzel's belief that the world was about to end was not part of the teaching of the church, a denomination similar to the Quakers and Mennonites that espouses a pacifist lifestyle.

The elder Whetzel was held without bond Friday in the Eastern Regional Jail in Martinsburg, a jail official said.

by CNB