Document text
Cross-country killing victim identified Selma area companion held in Virginia pending Illinois action By BILL VARBLE The body of a man found by a remote Illinois farm road has been positively identified as that of Jack Dee Moore, 53, of the Selma area. Complete autopsy results may not be available for up to two weeks, an Illinois coroner said. In Virginia, an extradition hearing for Charles Kenneth Evans, 44, also of Selma, is set for today in Washington County. Evans is expected to get a court-appointed attorney. If he fights extradition, a hearing could be delayed until June 6, said Detective C.L. Hazelwood, of the Washington County Sheriff's Office. Moore is believed to have been shot to death while on a cross-country motor-home trip with Evans that began in Southern Oregon. Evans reportedly told authorities the men shared a remote cabin in the Selma area. McLean County Coroner Beth Carlson-Kimmerling said Thursday that Moore died of a gunshot wound. She declined to say what kind of gun was used or how many times the body had been shot. "We've received conflicting stories in regard to his death," Carlson-Kimmerling said. "We have to clarify a few things." In Virginia, the Washington County Sheriff's Office obtained a fugitive warrant for Evans Thursday and will seek to return him to Illinois, Hazelwood said. Evans was being held in the Washington County Jail, where he is charged with concealing a homicide. Hazelwood said Evans has not confessed to murdering Moore. Evans was not questioned Thursday by either Virginia authorities or investigators from Illinois who talked to him earlier in the week, Hazelwood said. "We will not talk to him again unless he or his attorney approaches us," he said. Virginia authorities believe Evans dumped Moore's body in a weed-choked ditch between two cornfields near Bloomington, Ill., sometime last weekend. Evans is also being held on possession charges after Washington County deputies found drugs in a 1977 Dodge Tioga mini-motor home the men had been traveling in. The Virginia Forensics Lab in Roanoke reported that powder found in the motor home contained 2.6 grams of methamphetamine. Evans was arrested after an informant in Radford, Va., who said he was a friend of Moore's, told Radford police he'd been talking on the phone to two men in a motor home who were coming to Radford visit him. The informant said that one of the men, Evans, told him Friday an intruder had broken into the motor home and killed Moore. Evans then claimed to have shot and killed Moore's killer and to be traveling with both bodies. The informant reported that Evans said in a later call he had dumped the intruder's body and was still heading for Virginia with Moore's body. Radford police put out an alert, and Washington County deputies arrested Evans early Sunday at a travel center along Interstate 81 in western Virginia. Carlson-Kimmerling said it can take McLean County two weeks to get toxicology reports and the results of other tests. "Unfortunately, we have to send them to an out-of-state lab," she said. The tests include those for gunshot residue and details on any drugs in the victim's system, she said. McLean County authorities used information obtained by Virginia investigators to go to the exact spot where Moore's body was hidden Sunday evening. A dog believed to have been Moore's is in the Washington County dog pound. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.