Charlottesville Breaking News
Long gone: How UVA lost Pat Collins
Pat Collins (at right in parade photo) was a physiology student when he disappeared in March, 1986.family photos
Pudgy as a boy and raised in a violent household, Collins would find the self-discipline to become an Eagle Scout, and later an avid outdoorsman.family photos
Collins's mother, Barbara, and stepfather, Clarence, spent a month in Charlottesville vainly trying to convince the UVAPD that the 27-year-old doctoral degree candidate was a victim of foul play.family photos
UVA Police initially cited a $200 bank transaction as walk-away evidence, apparently unaware that Collins used the cash for a set of seven texts.family photos
Police and parents initially eyed Jordan Hall, where lax security caused Collins to pen a sign for his study room door. Across town, however, his bedroom window could be seen by "the man at the fence."desk photo: family. fence photo by Hawes Spencer
When Pat Collins set off for Charlottesville with a canoe strapped to his Plymouth, Barbara Shannon had three children. Daughter Fawn died of ovarian cancer in late 1997. Only Michael Shannon, age 53, survives.family photosBarbara Shannon was so nervous about flying overseas that she called her son in Charlottesville, where the 27-year-old had recently moved from California.
"Pat's last words to me were, ‘Don't worry, Mom, everything's going to be all right. Nothing's going to happen to you.’”
And indeed, 25 years later, his mother is still alive— but the same probably can’t be said for Patrick Collins.
After he vanished in 1986, the University of Virginia graduate student was branded a walk-away by the UVA Police Department. Instead of conducting a thorough investigation— especially in light of evidence suggesting foul play— the campus police dismissed any possibility of a crime and resolutely maintained that he must have schemed to abandon his life.
The harder the grieving family pushed for an investigation, the harder the university pushed back, finally asking an FBI agent— who had had only superficial contact with the case— for his assessment. He was happy to comply, and endorsed, on FBI letterhead, the department’s “professionalism” and “quality police work.”
Now, 25 years later, the FBI agent acknowledges that he wrote the...
Mistaken identity defense? Parkway shooter pleads guilty, gets life
Ralph Leon Jackson and the scene of the crime, the overlook where Tim Davis fell after shot by Jackson.file photo by hawes spencerRalph Leon Jackson, 57, pleaded guilty March 23 in federal court to the murder last spring of WNRN DJ Tim Davis, 27, and the wounding of Christina Floyd, 18, as they sat at Rock Point Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway and watched the sunset on April 5. Jackson will spend the rest of his life in prison.
He told investigators the seemingly random shotgun shooting was a case of mistaken identity, and that he thought Davis was the man "messing around" with his daughter, and that he mistook Floyd for his daughter, the News Virginian reports.
The Stuarts Draft man also has blamed his murderous behavior on insanity ("I'm crazy," he told Floyd as she struggled with him for her life) and on male-enhancement medication.
After the hearing, U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy said Jackson offered explanations to law enforcement that weren’t credible. "We found no evidence of a mental disease or defect," said Heaphy. "We can only speculate as to the motive for this awful crime."
Liz Taylor: She shot classic Giant in Albemarle
Rock Hudson, then 30, takes a break from filming at the Keswick railroad depot. Taylor, age 23, wasn't in the scene, as she is captured out of costume with her hair in curlers.photo by Edwin Roseberry
Roseberry catches Taylor leaving dinner at the old Thomas Jefferson Inn, with Montgomery Clift, who was not in the film, lurking at right in the background.photo by Edwin Roseberry
Roseberry surprises the cast at the Thomas Jefferson Inn: Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor at right, Rod Taylor center, and Paul Fix, best known as the marshal on The Rifleman, at left.photo by Edwin RoseberryAs tributes pour in for Elizabeth Taylor, some Albemarle residents may recall how she came to the Charlottesville area more than 50 years ago to shoot a movie that became a classic: Giant.
Besides Taylor, the 1956 film starred Rock Hudson and James Dean (who did not come for the Virginia scenes), in what would be the final role for Dean.
In Albemarle, it was a Keswick mansion called Belmont that served as the backdrop for some scenes supposedly taking place at a Maryland horse farm, and the Keswick rail depot was another location site.
Taylor's co-stars Hudson and Dean each earned Oscar nominations, as the film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in all.
Local photographer Ed Roseberry, known for his iconic shots of student life at UVA in the 1950s and 60s, vividly remembers Taylor's visit, and even manged to nab a shot of Taylor's good friend and former co-star Montgomery Clift, who was not in the film and seemed to "appear out of nowhere," says Roseberry.
A freelance photographer at the time who sidelined as a restaurant inspector for the health department, Roseberry says the kitchen manager of the swanky Thomas Jefferson Inn (now the Federal...
Glenmoregate: Embezzling Comer gets another 3 years
Michael Comer from his days as the president of Glenmore Country Club, left, and after he spent a month on the lam in Nelson County.FILE PHOTOSConvicted embezzler Michael Comer stood before a judge today in federal court for the final sentencing in a string of charges that came to light when the Glenmore homeowners association discovered it was missing money–- and its former treasurer.
Kandi Comer, his wife, and her sister, Mo Gaffney, sat in the back of the courtroom as U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon sentenced a gray-striped, prison-garbed Comer to 36 months on tax fraud and mail fraud charges stemming from embezzlement of Glenmore Associates, PBK Real Estate, and Kessler Enterprises–- companies associated with his wife's family.
Comer had already pleaded guilty. Between 2003 and 2009, he admitted he filed false income tax returns and had $2,548,212 in unreported, taxable income. He agreed to repay the additional income tax that's at least $933,028.
Comer's lawyer, Blair Howard from Warrenton, pleaded with the judge to consider Comer's children and the letters written by his mother-in-law, Peggy Kessler, and sister-in-law Gaffney, both victimized by Comer's financial machinations.
"It's true he betrayed his family," acknowledges Howard. "He used assets to buy a better way of life for his family." That included private school tuition for his two children.
Howard also noted Comer had n...
Incumbent protection? House plan would add Fauquier to 5th
David Wasserman drew this congressional "incumbent protection " map based on public reporting and hints from sources.MAP COURTESY DAVE BRADLEE'S REDISTRICTING APPEvery 10 years, Virginia redraws its congressional districts following the fresh census results. Cooler heads inevitably call for nonpartisan redistricting, and accusations of "gerrymandering" inevitably follow the new districts, always weighted-to-the-party-in-power.
A bipartisan plan has emerged from Virginia's members in the House of Representatives, Politico reports, but rather than praising that spirit of cooperation between Democrats and Republicans, critics are blasting the plan as "incumbent protection."
The plan was devised primarily by Virginia's eight GOP members, including the 5th District's freshman Representative Robert Hurt, and it got the support of the state's three Dem Reps by strengthening their districts as well, according to Politico's Richard E. Cohen, who cites multiple sources from both parties familiar with the plan.
Most eyepopping for voters in the already-gigantic 5th District, which stretches more than 150 miles from the North Carolina border to Greene County, is that the district would bloat even farther north to bisect the state, adding the Republican-leaning Washington exurb of Warrenton in Fauquier County.
David Wasserman at the Cook Political Report calls it "the most egregiously shaped district," str...
Latest Headlines
Latest from @readthehook
