Brenda Lee Dennis, a 54-year-old White/Caucasian woman from Ivydale, West Virginia, was found fatally shot inside a residence along the 6000 block of Big Otter Highway in Clay County in early April 2025. Authorities were alerted after family members became concerned because they could not reach her, and on the evening of April 3 a man who had discovered the victims stopped West Virginia State Police troopers and directed them to the home. Inside, investigators found Dennis and Richard Bishop of Maysel dead from gunshot wounds. Bishop had been shot three times, while Dennis had suffered a single gunshot wound. Investigators also recovered multiple 9 mm shell casings from the residence. Although the bodies were discovered and the homicide investigation unfolded on April 3, other published accounts and Dennis's obituary place her death on April 1, indicating the shooting itself may have occurred roughly two days before the discovery.
Attention quickly turned to Michael Wayne Adkins of Duck, West Virginia. A witness told investigators that Dennis and Bishop were romantically involved and described Adkins as being obsessed with Dennis while harboring hostility toward Bishop. Dennis's son gave police an even more ominous piece of information, reporting that Adkins had previously said he was going to kill Bishop one day. State Police located Adkins at his home in Duck and took him to the Clay Detachment for questioning. During the interview, according to court records and police accounts reported by the media, Adkins admitted being present at Dennis's residence and described a series of arguments and resentments that preceded the killings.
Adkins told investigators that he had gone to Dennis's home on March 31 to give her a ride to the bank and remained there overnight. He said the two argued the following day and that he left before later returning. According to his account, Dennis subsequently borrowed his vehicle and came back with Bishop. Tensions escalated again inside the home. Published accounts of the criminal complaint state that Adkins claimed Bishop threatened to beat him and that Dennis also confronted him during the dispute. Adkins said he drew a 9 mm handgun and shot Bishop once in the chest. After Bishop fell, Adkins admitted firing two more rounds into him. He then turned the gun toward Dennis and shot her once. Investigators later recovered the weapon believed to have been used in the killings; one account stated Adkins told police he had hidden or buried the firearm beneath an outbuilding on the property.
Investigators also developed a possible motive rooted in Adkins's relationship with Dennis. He reportedly told troopers he had known her for about three years and complained that he was tired of being used by her. Combined with the witness's description of his fixation on Dennis and the prior threat Dennis's son said Adkins had made against Bishop, authorities treated the deaths as an intentional double homicide rather than a random act of violence. Adkins was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He was booked into the Central Regional Jail and initially held without bond while the case proceeded through Clay County's court system. No other suspect was identified in the available reporting, and the investigation and prosecution centered on Adkins as the sole accused shooter.
The case ultimately resulted in a lengthy prison sentence. On July 1, 2026, Clay County Circuit Court sentenced Michael Wayne Adkins, then 59, to 40 years in prison on each of the two murder counts connected to the deaths of Dennis and Bishop. Prosecutors said the sentences would run concurrently, meaning the two 40-year terms are served at the same time rather than consecutively. The sentencing report did not specify whether the final disposition came through a negotiated plea or a trial verdict, but by that point Adkins had been adjudicated on both murder counts and ordered to serve the concurrent prison terms, bringing the criminal case stemming from the Ivydale double shooting to its sentencing stage.
