Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 25, 1995 TAG: 9501250067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Police made a gruesome discovery inside a van that had four parking tickets on the windshield: the body of a man who had been shot to death several days earlier.
Officers discovered the body of Lyle O. Walker, 41, in the back of his van in a city parking lot Monday - 10 days after he disappeared.
Walker had been dead for several days, but authorities were unable to be more specific pending an autopsy, he said.
Walker's wife reported him missing Jan.16, three days after he failed to return from a business trip to New Kent County, about 90 miles to the east.
On Jan. 17, Charlottesville traffic-control officers began ticketing the van for parking too long in the lot. Police were called to investigate Monday when a traffic officer prepared to slap a fifth ticket on the windshield.
The department tows vehicles that accumulate five tickets. Lt. J.E. ``Chip'' Harding said the traffic officer checked the van's license plate as the first step in the towing process.
Traffic-control officers had no way to know it was Walker's van because they don't have time to check the tag of each car that gets a parking ticket. Charlottesville traffic-control officers issue 150 or more tickets daily.
In this case, even though the van had several windows in the rear, all of them were too darkly tinted to see inside.``He got a hit because it was in our computer, and at that point, he backed away and called for assistance,'' Harding said.
``Even when I knew he was in there, I went up and tried to put my eyes against the glass, and I still couldn't see the body,'' Harding said. ``The bottom line was you just couldn't see.''
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.