CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. – Chesterfield Police spent six hours Friday digging for clues in a field where Nick Clavier was found shot – over two years ago.
Clavier was found shot in the head after crashing down an embankment off Hull Street Road into a tree in the patch of woods next to Cross Point Church of the Nazarene.
His four children were inside the car at the time.
“Really this is the only way we can say that we’ve done everything that we could logically to find out where the truth is,” said Captain Mike Louth.
Nick Clavier and family
Wife Melody Clavier has been searching for the truth since October 24, 2015.
Police said that Clavier’s gun accidentally discharged, but his family believes he was shot.
“In my heart obviously, what happened was the story I have been told over and over by my children — which was that somebody shot him,” Melody Clavier said.
Her daughter Mikayla, who was in the passenger seat at the time, says she saw a man pointing a gun from a car that pulled up next to them.
Where Nick Clavier ran off the road and into a tree after he was shot
“I heard a loud noise,” Mikayla said. “I looked over and saw my dad, he was bleeding and blood was going everywhere.”
After CBS 6 interviewed the family in May 2017, police changed the status of the case from cleared to pending.
A CBS 6 investigation revealed ballistics determined the bullet recovered from Clavier’s brain did not match his gun, which police initially ruled accidentally misfired inside the vehicle.
Mikayla said the bullet came from a car that she sketched after the accident.
“We just wanted to make sure that we were being good to our word and true to our word we said that we would do a thorough review and that’s exactly what we wanted to do and we wanted to come back to where things happened and take apart every aspect of this case,” Capt. Louth said.
Mikayla drew a sketch of a car she said she saw pull away after her dad was shot.
Mikayla drew a sketch of a car she said she saw pull away after her dad was shot.
Investigators combed through every inch of where the husband and father’s life would soon come to an end. They raked through the field, ran a metal detector over the area and recreated some of the events that occurred that day.
“We’re doing much of the same things we did the day that the incident happened we’re just going back redoing just to make sure that there was nothing that was missed or overlooked,” Louth said.
“They have both from statements, the computer within the vehicle and photos from the crime scene to help them kind of recreate that day so they will be using markers and everything to lay out what happened where and at what point,” said Melody.
Nick’s family hopes taking a look back will help them move forward.
“I might finally have answers one day so it’s incredibly important for me and really genuinely means a lot probably one of the best Christmas gifts I will get.”
“That’s what we said all along we’re looking for the truth,” Louth said.
Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for complete coverage of this important local story. Laura French will have another update in her latest Problem Solvers Investigation Tuesday on CBS 6 News at 11 p.m.
