Charles Anthony Moles, a 33-year-old White/Caucasian male from Miami, West Virginia, was killed in the early morning hours of July 26, 2025, in a shooting at a residence on Geneva Lane in the Miami area of eastern Kanawha County. At approximately 1:22 a.m., Kanawha County Metro 911 received a call reporting a shooting at the home. The caller, described by authorities as the mother of one of the men involved, reported finding her son on the front porch suffering from a gunshot wound. Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office deputies reached the residence within about seven minutes. There they discovered two people with fatal gunshot wounds: one on the front porch and another on the front lawn. Both died at the scene. Investigators soon determined that the two people were a father and son who lived at the residence.
The investigation ultimately established that Moles had been shot by his father, William Charles “Sandman” Moles, 50.
According to the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, the two had been involved in a domestic argument before the shooting. Investigators believed alcohol likely contributed to the confrontation, although detectives were never able to determine exactly what the argument was about or why it escalated into deadly violence. During the confrontation, William Moles shot Charles Anthony Moles on the front porch. After shooting his son, William went into the front yard and turned the firearm on himself, dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. What initially remained under investigation as an apparent murder-suicide was later formally confirmed after detectives completed their investigation and received the autopsy findings. Authorities said the autopsy results supported their conclusion that William fatally shot his son and then killed himself shortly afterward.
The sheriff’s office reported that it found no suspicious circumstances suggesting another person had participated in the deaths. Because the person investigators identified as the shooter died at the scene from his self-inflicted injury, there was no arrest in connection with Charles Moles’ killing. No additional suspect was publicly identified, and there was consequently no criminal prosecution, trial, or conviction arising from the case. The final investigative determination was murder-suicide, with William Moles identified as the person who killed Charles before taking his own life. The unresolved element was the precise reason for the father-son argument; detectives said they could not establish what triggered it or explain why it became violent beyond their finding that alcohol was likely a factor.
Outside the circumstances of his death, Moles’ obituary described a life centered on his family and his work. He had graduated from Riverside High School and was employed by the West Virginia Division of Corrections as a corrections officer. His obituary remembered him as a loving husband, father, brother and grandson who enjoyed spending time with his family, sitting by a fire and collecting hats. He left behind his wife, children, siblings, mother and grandfather. Funeral services were held August 8, 2025, at O’Dell Funeral Home in Montgomery, followed by burial at Kanawha Valley Memorial Gardens. His father’s obituary, published separately, also identified Charles Anthony Moles as his son, further tying together the two deaths that occurred on the same morning.
