UPDATE: Authorities ID body found in Campbell County

Campbell County authorities released a tentative identification on very decomposed human remains found near Rustburg on Friday, the second body found in the county this week.

Campbell County Sheriff Terry Gaddy said the victim was likely William Robinson, an elderly man who lived in Campbell County near the Lynchburg city limits and disappeared nearly 15 years ago.

“We are, and have been, actively looking for a gentleman that was 70 years old, and lives about a mile and a half from the site of where we found this,” Gaddy said at a news conference Friday, adding “The clothing seems to indicate that it may have been a male, and around six feet tall.”

Later in the afternoon, after investigators talked with Robinson’s family, Maj. Steve Hutcherson said the family was fairly confident the body was Robinson’s, based on clothing and personal items found at the scene.

The body is the second found in Campbell County within a week’s time, after the body of Cassandra Morton, of Lynchburg, was found on Candlers Mountain on Sunday.

The circumstances are vastly different and there is no correlation between the two sets of remains, Gaddy said on Friday.

A turkey hunter discovered the skeletal remains in the area of Poor House Road, near Rustburg, on Friday morning, Gaddy said, and all appearances indicated the body had been decomposing there for years.

“There were trees growing up through the middle of the body, so … it’s definitely been years that this body has been here,” Gaddy said.

The hunter, who didn’t have a cell phone, returned to his car and drove to the sheriff’s office about 10 a.m. to report the finding, Gaddy said.

Gaddy said the sheriff’s office would pursue DNA testing to establish a positive identity. The body was so decayed other medical methods would not yield a conclusive identity.

The body was sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Roanoke for testing.

Gaddy said Robinson had been reported missing in March of 1995, when Campbell County investigators took over a search that originally began in Lynchburg.“The family indicated that he walked … from downtown Lynchburg back out to Campbell County,” Gaddy said, noting the last day Robinson had been seen, several residents noticed him walking along Campbell Highway.

A story in the March 11, 1995 edition of The News & Advance said William Robinson was 73 years old, 6 feet tall and lived in the Bocock area of Campbell County. He had been missing for five days by then.

His daughter noted in the story that her father sometimes became disoriented because of his age but she said he was not prone to wandering off.

“His left knee and his left foot are always swelling up, so he doesn’t do a whole lot of walking,” Phyllis Robinson said in 1995.

Gaddy said investigators are treating the death as a homicide, but that it is standard procedure early in investigations like this.

“It’s just speculative right now,” he said, “but it may have been an individual up in age, in poor health that may have wandered into this group of woods and couldn’t get out.”

Friday’s discovery echoed a similar incident Sunday, when a hiker discovered Morton’s body off a trail in the area of Camp Hydaway Road.

He said the discovery of two bodies within a short amount of time is very unusual, but stressed that he did not see a connection between the two discoveries.

“As soon as something like this happens people think oh, we’ve got a serial killer or something around here,” Gaddy said.

“I can say, I think, positively they are not related. It’s just circumstances that they were found around the same time.”

He said he hoped the public perception of the Campbell County would not change because of the discoveries.

“In my 34 years, this doesn’t happen very often, and I would hate for anyone to think that Campbell County is a dumping ground for someone to bring a body,” Gaddy said.

Earlier

The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the discovery of a body near Rustburg, officials said this afternoon.

Maj. Steve Hutcherson said the body was found around 9:30 a.m. by a hunter in the area of Poor House Road

Hutcherson said the body appeared to have been there for more than 10 years, and there are no signs of foul play.

The sheriff’s office, he said, had suspicions as to the identity of the body, but due to the decomposition, could not immediately identify the remains. Hutcherson said the body appeared to be that of a male.

The sheriff’s office has scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m.

This marks the second discovery of a body in Campbell County this week.

On Sunday, investigators found the remains of 23-year-old Cassandra Morton, of Lynchburg, off a hiking trail on Candlers Mountain. Her death is being investigated as a homicide case, authorities have said.

Check back with newsadvance.com for more updates as the story develops.