ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607050007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
July 3, 1991: Andrea Walnes leaves her Woodbury, Conn. home to travel to Virginia Tech. She plans a head start on practice for an upcoming national gymnastics competition.
July 4, 1991: Walnes, a Tech sophomore, and three friends go to the New River about noon near McCoy for a day of tubing. So do an estimated 1,000 other people.
July 4, 1991: Jamie Cooper, one of Walnes' companions, sees her leave the river after she becomes separated from the group. It was about 1:15 p.m., the last time anyone remembers seeing Walnes.
July 4, 1991: Walnes' friends report her missing at 5:50 p.m. after searching for her for more than three hours. Authorities from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office along with various rescue personnel investigate the disappearance as a possible drowning.
July 5, 1991: A state police helicopter joins 15 divers and a search dog along with volunteers from five rescue squads to search for Walnes's body. Officials still believe she has drowned.
July 7, 1991: Authorities call off the search of the river.
July 9, 1991: The Giles County Sheriff's Office officially takes the case over since Walnes was last seen about 25 feet inside the Giles County line. They then change the investigation's focus from a possible drowning to a "missing person case." Walnes' father offers a $2,500 reward for information about his daughter's disappearance.
July 9, 1991: John David Lafon, 31, of Pembroke is arrested and indicted on 17 charges including the 1987 murder of Tech student Meredith Mergler. The 19-year-old was found in a Giles County cistern 14 months after her disappearance. She had been shot in the face and chest.
July 11, 1991: Lafon pleads innocent to 17 charges, including four related to Mergler's slaying.
July 12, 1991: Kollmorgen, parent company of Radford's Inland Motor and Industrial Drives Division, the former employer Walnes' father, adds $5,000 to the reward for Walnes' safe return or the recovery of her body.
July 18, 1991: Walnes' parents, divorced since 1990, talk to a newspaper reporter about their daughter. They describe her as "very sparkly and bubbly." The reward rises to $10,000.
August 1991: Investigation continues and with the help of family and friends, the reward increases to $25,000.
Oct. 8, 1991: Police release composite drawing of man who may have given Walnes a ride the day of her disappearance. The man who called in the tip says he saw a women matching Walnes' description get into a black jeep with a bearded, red-headed man. The man is eventually contacted and interviewed and found not to be involved.
Oct. 16, 1991: A jury takes two hours - after six days of testimony - to find Lafon guilty of the murder and abduction of Mergler. He was sentenced to life plus 12 years. Lafon's lawyer tell a reporter that Lafon is now a prime suspect in the Walnes case.
Oct. 19, 1991: A national television program, Mystery/Reward, films a re-enactment of Walnes' disappearance and airs it five days later.
Nov. 1, 1991: A bow hunter finds the scattered remains of Walnes' body in the wooded mountains of Giles County in the Stony Creek section about 30 miles from the New River and just three-tenths of a mile from the West Virginia state line.
Nov. 7, 1991: Walnes' ashes are buried on her godfather's farm in Newport. More than 300 people attend a memorial service in Tech's War Memorial chapel.
July 4, 1992: Giles County investigators spend the day - one year after Walnes' disappearance - interviewing tubers at the New River who say they were there the year before.
July 27, 1992: The Roanoke Times & World News goes to court to have federal search warrants unsealed in connection with the Walnes case. They reveal agents searched John David Lafon's van for hair and clothing fibers that would connect him to Walnes. Lafon maintains he is innocent.
Nov. 30, 1993: The state court of appeals upholds Lafon's conviction in the Meredith Mergler case.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines KEYWORDS: CHRONOLOGYby CNB