Bodies of Two Missing Students Found, Third Still Missing by Jason O'Neill
Beckley – A man walking his dog discovered the bodies of two of three missing State College students along Route 219 yesterday morning, a Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said.
The bodies of Davis Revels and Keith Hastings were found buried in a shallow grave in the woods along route 219 just outside of Beckley. Though the coroner has yet to release an official cause of death, Deputy Thomas Fitch of Fayette County Sheriff’s Department said that the young men likely died of multiple stab wounds.
“The bodies are just torn to pieces,” Fitch said while on the scene. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Ernie Billings was out on his morning walk with his Pomeranian when his dog pulled the leash out his hand and ran into the nearby forest. Billings followed the dog in to the wooded area where the dog was digging at the ground.
“It looked like he was digging at some kind of branch or root,” Billing said. “He’s got a real sensitive stomach, so I wanted to make sure he didn’t eat nothing bad. As soon as I grabbed it, I realized it was something else. Turned out it was one of those boy’s legs.”
Though police have released little information, they did say that the bodies were so badly decomposed that dental records were required to identify them as two of the missing boys.
Hastings and Revels, both students at State College, went missing three weeks ago with a third student, Kevin Reynolds. They were last seen leaving a party in Hastings’s 2003 Mustang with an as yet unidentified young woman.
“She’s definitely a person of interest and we’d like to talk with her,” Fitch said, “If nothing else, just to give us an idea of where the hell those boys may have ended up that night.”
Despite yesterday’s grisly discovery, Hastings’s car has not been found, nor has there been any sign of Kevin Reynolds.
Asked whether he thought Reynolds may still be alive, Fitch replied, “Well, we can only hope, but after finding these boys like this, it don’t look too good.” read more
