On the evening of October 15, 2022, the quiet of Pecks Mill, West Virginia, was broken by violence that ended the life of Lamanda "Mandi Lynn" Vance, a 42-year-old Caucasian female. Responding to reports of an active shooter on Huffman Branch Road at approximately 8:30 p.m., law enforcement officials arrived to a grim scene. They discovered Vance deceased on her own porch, having sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
The immediate aftermath of the shooting saw a search for the person responsible. Witnesses at the scene, including Vance's own daughter, identified the shooter as 22-year-old Zachary Curtis Ball of Stollings, West Virginia, who was Vance's son-in-law. According to these accounts, Ball shot Vance and then fled the area on foot, carrying the firearm with him. Deputies began a search and soon located Ball hiding in a nearby culvert.
Upon his arrest, officers noted the smell of alcohol, and Ball reportedly made statements of remorse, saying he had "messed up and shot her."
Investigators began to piece together the events that led to the tragedy, describing the incident as a domestic situation that had escalated. There was some indication that a dispute over child custody may have been a contributing factor. While a magazine clip was recovered, the firearm used in the shooting was not immediately found, with the dense foliage in the area complicating the search.
Following his apprehension, Zachary Ball was charged with murder and taken to the Southwestern Regional Jail. The legal process moved forward, and in May 2023, a Logan County Grand Jury handed down an indictment against Ball for the first-degree murder of his mother-in-law, Lamanda Vance. During a preliminary hearing, witness testimony was presented, further detailing the events of that fatal evening.
