The following is the last of the Charleston Daily Mail news reports on the Lynn Priestley murder from the week she disappeared and the time her body was found. It is from the March 27, 1990 edition.
I’m waiting for a lead on reporter Frank Hutchins from James A. Haught, Editor of the Charleston Gazette-Daily Mail. Editor Haught has been with the Charleston papers since 1952 and told me “They’ll have to carry me out of here because I will never go on my own.” Mr. Haught gave me the lead on the Priestley murder and on the murder of Juliet Staunton Clark from 1953. He would love to see both cases resolved!
Police set up 24-hour hot line of Priestly slaying
By Frank Hutchins
© Charleston Daily Mail 3-27-90
Lynn Priestly, a Charleston woman whose nude body was discovered Wednesday near Chesapeake, was strangled to death, according to a report from the state Medical Examiner’s Office.
“It appears at this time … to have been done by human hands,” Sgt. Jerry Riffe of the Charleston Police Department said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.
Sgt. Dallas Staples also announced that a 24-hour hot line had been set up to receive information on the abduction and murder of Priestley, 34, who was last seen alive Friday night.
The hot line number is 348-6480. Callers do no have to leave their names, police said.
Riffe said the Medical Examiner’s report indicated Priestley was killed not long after her disappearance, and that she was dead when her body was placed on a bank leading from W. Va. 61 to the Kanawha River.
No arrests have been made in the case, and police declined to comment on any suspect they might have. Staples said further testing is being done by the Medical Examiner’s Office to determine whether alcohol, drugs, or sexual abuse were involved.
Investigators now are trying to determine what happened between the time Priestley left the Tidewater Grill in the Charleston Town Center Friday night and when her body was placed on the river bank.
In a Tuesday interview, Priestley’s parents said they were telephoned Saturday morning by Lynn’s boyfriend, Thomas R. White. White wanted to know if Charles and Blanche Priestley had seen Lynn.
White told them he went to the Tidewater with Lynn, but the two separated about 11 p.m. when they disagreed where to go after leaving the restaurant.
White said he took a taxi home, and Lynn headed to her car in the parking lot of the Kanawha County Judicial Annex.
Ed Leonard, an investigator with the Kanawha County Prosecutor’s office, said he had information Priestley and White were involved in an argument in that parking lot around midnight Friday.
Police on Thursday declined to comment on the alleged argument, but Riffe said according to witnesses Priestley was last seen heading east on Quarrier Street about midnight Friday.
Police were led to Priestley’s body after a man looking for a fishing spot discovered her lying on the riverbank about one-half mile from Chesapeake.
Leonard was one of the first to arrive at the scene, and said it appeared Priestley’s body had been thrown over the steep embankment from the roadside not long after she was killed.
Police have not found Priestley’s clothes.
(The remainder of the story tells about Lynn’s background, where she graduated from school and university, where she attended church, and where she worked, plus the funeral arrangements and surviving members of the family).
Once again, I must point out that there was “extreme political pressure” (the retired detective’s description) upon the police to solve this case. Since Thomas R. White was neither arrested nor brought before a grand jury, I must believe there simply was not enough evidence to move forward with an arrest.
Obviously, White knew exactly where Lynn was going when she left him following the argument that the KCSO Bailiff broke up. Two witnesses say she ran from the lot eastbound on Quarrier Street. Presumably the deputy kept White from an immediate pursuit of Lynn. Did he have time after leaving the deputy to run her down; and unless he had a vehicle present nearby, it beggars the imagination that he could have done this without having being seen. Quarrier Street on a Friday night is not heavily travelled but it is not empty either.
White did not actually live with Lynn, I was just told (
but not by LE, by a neighbor). I just attempted to find his address at the time in People Search and another data base, but have located three separate Thomas R. Whites and T. R. White, a Thomas White and a Tom White. Until I see the police file, I cannot tell you where the correct Thomas R. White lived.
Shamblin admitted he could not have identified the two arguing, only that it was loud, and it was a woman and a man. The bailiff certainly identified the man as Thomas R. White as he confronted him following the argument.