Sheriff: Lack of progress in double homicide case ‘frustrating’

Montgomery County Sheriff Tommy Whitt keeps pictures of Heidi Childs and David Metzler inside of his office.

“Keeps it constant on my mind ... not that I would forget it,“ Whitt said.

The teenage couple from the Lynchburg area was found shot to death in the Caldwell Fields section of the county in August.

More than one month later, the crime remains unsolved.

“It is frustrating, yes,“ Whitt said. “It concerns me that no one has been arrested and concerns me the person or persons that committed this crime is still somewhere ... either in our community or has left the community.“

Police are tight-lipped about the investigation, but the sheriff acknowledged they are sitting on information.

“We know certain things that they won’t necessarily know we know so therefore if we release it, it becomes common knowledge to everyone and it would in fact jeopardize the investigation,“ he said.
   
Whitt said he’s confident the case will be solved, but “I can’t put a time frame on it,“ he said.

Families of the victims are hoping the reward - over $50,000 and growing - will bring someone forward with information.

But the sheriff doesn’t want the reward amount to dictate when someone speaks up.

“If there’s a person sitting out there that knows something about this crime that’s just waiting on the reward pool to grow, then I would say shame on them,“ Whitt said.

Investigators are still chasing down leads and looking forward to the day they can call the Childs and Metzler families about a break in the case.

“I wish that day had been the day of or the day after the double homicide,“ Whitt said.
 
Authorities ask anyone with information about the case to call the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office at (540) 382-2951.