Chad Christopher Minor, a 46-year-old male from Lanark, died on Friday, May 24, 2024, after a shooting in the Stanaford area of Raleigh County, West Virginia. The incident unfolded at a home on Hoist Road, where deputies with the Raleigh County Sheriff's Office were called shortly before 7:30 p.m. When they arrived, they found Minor inside the residence suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken from the scene to a hospital, but the injuries were fatal, and what began as an emergency call at a quiet Raleigh County home became a death investigation.
In the first public reports after the shooting, authorities said the resident of the home had been identified as the shooter and was cooperating with investigators. At that stage, no charges had been filed, and officials described the circumstances as still under investigation.
The early picture of the case was limited: Minor had been shot inside the home, the homeowner was known to deputies, and investigators were still working through what had happened before the gunfire.
The case changed days later when Raleigh County authorities announced that Stephen Andrew Neal, 50, of Stanaford, had been charged in connection with Minor's death. Neal was accused of murder, kidnapping, and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The charges stemmed from the May 24 shooting at the Hoist Road residence, the same location where Minor had been found wounded. Reports indicated Neal had initially not been charged directly after the incident, but investigators later said they had developed enough evidence to bring charges.
After the charges were filed, Neal was held at Southern Regional Jail while awaiting court proceedings in Raleigh County. Authorities continued to describe the investigation as ongoing and asked anyone with information about the shooting to contact the Raleigh County Sheriff's Office. Publicly available reports identified Neal as the charged suspect, but they did not provide a detailed account of the alleged motive or the full sequence of events that led to Minor being shot. No publicly available online reporting located for this synopsis confirmed a trial outcome or conviction.
