Husband speaks out after wife's body found at Leesville Lake

The husband of Brenda Eades, the Hurt woman whose body was found at Leesville Lake on Sunday, said she suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and had been in physical pain for four years before she disappeared Dec. 15.

“She just ached,” Butch Eades said during a telephone interview Monday evening, adding that Brenda Eades, 57, was getting weaker and weaker and her medication was no longer working. Doctors couldn’t provide an effective treatment for her illness, he said.

The Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office in Roanoke confirmed Monday that the body found in Leesville Lake Sunday was that of Eades.

Lt. Boyd Arnold, of the Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, backing up the medical examiner’s confirmation, said Monday, “We don’t have reports of any other bodies in the lake.”

Arnold said Eades, whose body was found Sunday at Leesville Lake, had no visible wounds. The Medical Examiner’s Office is performing an autopsy, with results expected this week. Authorities do not suspect foul play.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome include severe, constant fatigue for six months or more, “impairment in short-term memory or concentration, sore throat, tender lymph nodes, muscle pain, multi-joint pain without swelling or redness, headaches, unrefreshing sleep, and post-exertional malaise lasting more than 24 hours.”

Eades’ family used a helicopter piloted by a friend for free to search the Leesville Lake area Sunday. Butch Eades said they flew about 1 ½ hours above the lake after church to try to locate his wife.

Eades said he spotted a red object by the lake, and he had remembered that Brenda had worn a red jacket the last time he saw her. It didn’t turnout to be her, but Butch Eades found his wife’s body nearby, about 100 yards from where search dogs had indicated earlier.

“I felt kind of relieved to a degree,” Eades said of finding her body. “It was sad, but… it was a relief, also.”

Pittsylvania County investigators located Eades’ Jeep in the Leesville Lake area of Pittsylvania County at about 3 p.m. on Dec. 18. The 2006 silver Jeep was found in a driveway of a newly-constructed, unoccupied home on Island Point Drive near the marina on Leesville Lake in Pittsylvania County. The unoccupied vehicle was locked and contained Eades’ personal items.

Butch said Brenda, who was a mortgage loan officer, had arranged the loan for the home and liked the area. She may have gone there to think, he said.

“We really don’t know what has happened,” he said.

The couple had been married for 37 years, and had grown up together and attended the same church where they met, Monte Vista Baptist Church in Hurt. Brenda is also survived by two sons, Timothy and Daniel, two granddaughters, Emily and Gracyn, and her father, James Miles.

Sheriff’s deputies had used a K-9 bloodhound and tracked her from the vehicle to an area behind the residence and into the lake. Virginia Canine Response Team also helped the search for Eades since Sunday, as well as the Virginia State Police, Danville Life Saving Crew and the Moneta Fire Department.

Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office personnel, canine units and members of the Altavista Rescue Squad had also conducted a ground and water search.

Bad weather and high water in the lake had slowed the search.

Authorities had searched in Harrisonburg early in the case.

- Crane is a staff writer for the Danville Register & Bee. Denice Thibodeau contributed to this story.