Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 3, 1994 TAG: 9412050036
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE LENGTH: Medium
Grigsby's brother, Ken, recalled a different story. He testified Friday that his brother admitted the slaying, then asked for help to hide his wife's remains.
First, Dan Grigsby argued with his wife, then ``he said he killed her,'' Ken Grigsby testified during a preliminary hearing in Craig County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
As he took the stand, Ken Grigsby looked directly at his brother. Dan Grigsby never met the gaze, and instead stared at the table before him.
Dan Grigsby pleaded not guilty to shooting and killing Dolly Rose Grigsby. But testimony Friday alleged a gruesome plan by the 43-year-old Buchanan County man to dismember his wife so authorities could not identify her.
When it was over, the judge certified the case against Grigsby to a grand jury. A date has not been set for those deliberations.
According to testimony, at least four people heard Dan Grigsby say he killed his wife: Ken Grigsby; Ken Grigsby's wife; Ken Grigsby's daughter; and Mickey Breeding, a friend Ken Grigsby enlisted to help pull apart the woman's body.
Breeding led police to the two areas in the Jefferson National Forest where Dolly Rose Grigsby was buried.
Dan Grigsby had told police his wife disappeared at the Mercer Mall in West Virginia. He said he looked for her but figured she had returned home to Pilgrims Knob, about 70 miles away. Grigsby offered a reward for any information leading to her return.
In early October - almost three months after Dolly Grigsby vanished - Breeding led state investigators to two creek beds off Tub Run Road in Craig County. Underneath a pile of rocks, they found several brown plastic bags containing the remains of Dolly Grigsby, State Police Special Agent Jack Davidson said Friday.
About eight miles down the road, investigators found her underwear, a blanket that had been wrapped around her body, and her lower jawbone with one molar still intact.
Police identified her through that piece of jawbone. According to an autopsy, she was killed by at least one .32-caliber gunshot wound to the chest.
Davidson testified that her body was dismembered on three separate occasions. The first time, he told the judge, Breeding and Ken Grigsby severed her head and buried it. A week later, Davidson said, Dan Grigsby asked his brother to retrieve the head and return it to Dickenson County, which they did. On a third occasion, Breeding and Ken Grigsby tore apart the rest of her body, he said.
For their work, Breeding and Ken Grigsby shared $1,200, Davidson testified. Police have not found Dolly Grigsby's skull.
Mickey Breeding and Ken Grigsby each have been charged with being accessories to the crime. They are free on bond, pending their arraignment.
Friday, Dan Grigsby was taken back to the Botetourt County Jail.
by CNB