ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997 TAG: 9704240063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI THE ROANOKE TIMES
In addition to solving the Christopher Wilson murder, Detective Jeff Herrick made an arrest in a telephone-threat case.
Roanoke County Detective Jeff Herrick is a nose-to-the-grindstone kind of officer. Cases take legwork, perseverance and timing, he says.
By all accounts, those elements came together last year for Herrick, who solved the county's only murder in 1996 while also making an arrest in a 3-year-old telephone-threat case.
His colleagues and supervisors recognized him last month by choosing him 1996 Officer of the Year. But Herrick isn't one to gloat. He quickly points out the work of his fellow officers.
"I know the guys told me I'd done well," Herrick said. "But without the help of everyone in the criminal investigations division, I wouldn't have been able to do what I did."
Last year began early, just as he was putting away his Christmas tree. About 8 a.m. Jan. 2, a police dispatcher called Herrick about a possible suicide at a Southwest Roanoke County garage.
Christopher Wilson, a 26-year-old auto mechanic, had been found face-down in one of the work bays. When police rolled him over, they realized they had a murder. Wilson had been beaten to death.
For the first time in his career, Herrick led the homicide investigation. He coordinated the interviews and the direction of the case. He began as he always does: methodically probing the evidence and talking to witness after witness.
Herrick made an arrest within four days. Christopher Saul was convicted and is serving a 42-year prison sentence.
"There's a satisfaction I've always gotten of being able to go to a family and say the man who did this to your [loved one] is in jail," Herrick said. "There's a satisfaction of being able to go to somebody who has been a victim and say this person won't be able to do this to you [again]."
As the Saul case maneuvered through the court system, Herrick turned part of his attention to another case he had been investigating since he became a detective in 1993. For three years, he had been looking into hundreds of sexually explicit phone threats to girls in the Roanoke Valley.
He recognized a pattern: The caller had been choosing the victims' names from The Roanoke Times' Neighbors section. Working with a Roanoke detective, Herrick zeroed in on the perpetrator, Michael Obremski. Obremski was arrested in May and convicted of making phone threats to six girls in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Botetourt County. He was sentenced to 621/2 years in prison.
"My biggest satisfaction in the 15 years I've been a police officer is to look at the families at the end of the Obremski case and tell those girls who lived through that nightmare that he's going to jail and he isn't going to hurt you," Herrick said. "He can't hurt you."
In a profession where the tough-cop attitude is glamorized, Herrick is an anomaly. He doesn't forget to return phone calls, and he isn't one to say he's too busy to talk about a case.
"He's not detached," said Roanoke County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Marian Kelley. "He cares about the victims' families. He almost felt protective of these girls."
His working philosophy comes from a Bible verse he learned when he was young, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
"Unless the situation is so volatile, I treat everyone as I'd want them to treat me," Herrick said.
For Herrick, police work isn't about grand entrances or exits. He would rather focus on the small gestures and gradual steps.
"I'm not here to be a hero," he said. "I'd much rather a child look up to me because I was nice and played ball with them. I want to do something to try and help people who can't help themselves."
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB