ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 20, 1996 TAG: 9602200082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
A 31-year-old woman whose body was discovered last week along a riverbank near Buchanan may have been murdered, Botetourt County Sheriff Reed Kelly said Monday.
Rebecca Jean Wright of Northeast Roanoke had been missing for 11 weeks.
``We certainly suspect that some foul play is involved,'' Kelly said. In such cases, he said, investigators have to presume a death is suspicious until it's proven otherwise.
Kelly would not say whether investigators have zeroed in on a possible motive or any suspects, or whether the autopsy showed evidence of violence.
The stated cause of death won't be final until lab tests are complete.
He said as far as investigators can determine, no one had seen Wright since Dec. 1 or 2. But investigators have conflicting accounts as to who last saw her.
``She was there one day and not the next,'' Kelly said.
Wright's sister made a missing-person report to Roanoke police Dec. 10, but city detectives say they hadn't turned up any leads before her body was found.
Two men looking for aluminum cans along the James River found Wright's body Thursday night in brush about 12 feet from the water, perhaps half a mile from the Interstate 81 bridge.
She apparently had been dead several weeks, Kelly said.
Kelly said Wright was the mother of two children, ages 4 and 14. He said the children lived some of the time with her and other times with her ex-husband.
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB