THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, September 21, 1995           TAG: 9509210400
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: [Joe Jackson] 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

SEVERAL PEOPLE LINKED TO ARNDER'S DEATH HAVE DIED

Randy Bowman's alleged statements to his son about killing several people raise the question of the victims' identities. No names were mentioned, Bowman's son Timothy Crabtree said in his affidavit.

But, Kathy Carreon - one of the three witnesses claiming Bowman bragged of committing murders - told a reporter in an interview this year: ``Randy always said if you needed someone knocked off, he knew someone who could do it.''

Several people linked to Arnder's murder died in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s - some after Stockton was incarcerated. They include:

Junior Danley, shot to death in a domestic incident in the 1980s. Danley told his girlfriend, Linnie Davis, that Arnder was killed in Kibler Valley and that four to six people were present - but, Stockton was not one of them, according to sworn affidavits by Davis' two daughters.

The daughters said Danley was covered with blood, that he put Arnder's body in the trunk of Davis' white Oldsmobile, and that he was scared he would go to jail for the killing. One daughter told an investigator that Danley cut off Arnder's hands, an affidavit said.

Robert Hershberger, shot multiple times while in the Midwest, though police claimed Hershberger committed suicide, Stockton said. Hershberger, rumored to have been present at Arnder's death, died in late 70s or the early 1980s.

Dianne McBride, the wife of Tommy Lee McBride, who Bowman said offered Stockton $1,500 to kill Arnder. She committed suicide several years after the murder, but the motive was never clear, acquaintances have said. Some believe she was racked by guilt, others that she killed herself to escape drug addiction. Stockton says her death was not suicide, only made to look that way.

Ronnie Tate, also said to be present at the murder, was shot to death by Stockton in 1979. An alleged witness to the shooting, Robert Gates, testified that Stockton shot Tate ``for running his mouth'' about the Arnder murder. Yet Gates' statement to police is filled with inconsistencies, and when he tried to lead police to Tate's body he couldn't find it. Stockton, who did lead police to the body, says he killed Tate in self-defense.

Michael Tate, Ronnie Tate's cousin, was reportedly killed in a traffic accident. In 1985, Tate told Stockton's brother that he heard Bowman bragging about lying in Stockton's case while the two served prison time together in Winston-Salem, N.C. Bowman also said he got money for the lie, Tate said. Tate's allegations were published in 1986 in The Mount Airy News. He died later that decade, Stockton said.

KEYWORDS: MURDER DEATH ROW DENNIS STOCKTON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT by CNB