GOOCHLAND COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) -In a press conference that opened with cadets paying tribute to missing Waynesboro Police Department Reserve Unit Captain Kevin Quick, police said the case has changed status to a death investigation.
In tribute to Quick a flag was lowered to half-staff at the Fishburne Military School. The body has not been positively identified by the Medical Examiner as Quick's, Corrine Geller, Virginia State Police spokesperson, said.
"Unfortunately this case transitioned from an investigation into a disappearance, into a death investigation, and as a result we are still very actively pursuing new leads," Geller said Friday afternoon, a week after Quick disappeared.
Late Thursday night police made more arrests in connection with the case; two men and a woman were arrested. Police believe additional charges could be made, and possibly additional suspects charged.
Forty-nine-year-old Leslie Hope Casterlow, of 10900 block Wild Ginger Cir. in Manassas, 31-year-old Anthony Darnell Stokes Jr, of the 10000 block Portsmouth Rd. in Manassas and 22-year-old Halisi Uhuru, of the 1700 block Franklin Tpke. in Danville, were charged with Principle 2nd Degree Capital Murder During Abduction.
This charge is different from Capital Murder in that it is not punishable by death penalty but is punishable by life in prison.
The Commonwealth's Attorney has also added a felony count of Gang Participation for each individual arrested Thursday, though investigators would not go into detail.
The trio are being held at the Henrico County Jail West and will be in court on Monday. A CBS investigation revealed that two of the suspects, Stokes and Uhuru, were recently released from prison for other crimes. Uhuru changed his name from Gert Wright and was first arrested at age 14. Read more on their criminal past here.
A body, believed to be that of Quick, was discovered Thursday off Old Columbia Road in Goochland County, near the Fluvana county line. Police are expected to positively identify that body later today.
Quick disappeared Friday night after he left his mother’s Afton home. He was headed to see the mother of his four-month-old daughter, about 20 miles away.
*Click on right hand top corner of map to enlarge*
A search warrant indicated the last communication on Quick’s phone–a text message – was made to his girlfriend. The phone was shut off around 10:54 p.m. Friday.
The spot where the body believed to be Quick’s was found is located roughly 10-15 miles away from the ATM where Quick’s bank account was first accessed 45 minutes after he went missing Friday, according to search warrant affidavits.
Quick’s 4Runner was first spotted on camera in Fork Union at 11:40 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31, just over an hour after his last text was sent, then the next day--around the same time-- in Manassas.
Quick was laid off from his work at a Waynesboro plant several weeks ago, after almost two decades of service. He received a severance payment at the time, a sum of money which authorities have not accounted for, according to case documents.
Click here for complete coverage of missing Capt. Kevin Quick.
Mersadies Shelton, Shantai Shelton and Daniel Mathis (left to right) were arrested in the disappearance of reservist police captain Kevin Quick.
Thursday a judge denied bond to three Albemarle County siblings also arrested in connection with the Quick’s disappearance.
Their home address, on Barracks Road in Charlottesville, is less than two miles from the apartments where Quick was headed.
Mersadies Shelton, 20, and Mathis, 18, are charged with felony grand larceny in connection with Quick’s stolen vehicle. Shantai Shelton, 24, was taken into custody on outstanding arrest warrant in Louisa County.
Quick's 4Runner was located Monday, in the 3600 block of Cedar Hill Road in Louisa County, not far from where Mathis allegedly discharged a firearm at a teenager during a Super Bowl party. The 4Runner was seen being used as his getaway vehicle.
