R.J. Dobbins, a 54-year-old White man from Gassaway, West Virginia, was killed on April 19, 2021, in a domestic shooting that authorities described as an apparent murder-suicide. The violence unfolded along Tunnel Fork Road in Braxton County, where West Virginia State Police were called after a report of gunfire. When troopers reached the property, they discovered Dobbins and 45-year-old Stormy Dean dead at the scene.
Investigators concluded that Dean shot Dobbins and then turned the firearm on herself. Authorities characterized the incident as domestic in nature, but publicly available reports did not explain what happened in the moments leading up to the gunfire, what relationship existed between Dobbins and Dean, or whether there had been earlier disputes or warning signs. No additional person was identified as being involved, and investigators did not announce that anyone else was being sought.
Dobbins had been born in Gassaway on September 7, 1966, to Ralph J.
and Mina K. Dobbins. His obituary described a family left to mourn him, including a sister, three children, five grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins and many close friends. He had also endured the earlier deaths of his parents and his brother, Ralph E. Dobbins. Following his death, family and friends gathered for funeral services in Flatwoods, and he was laid to rest at Bealls Mill Cemetery in Gassaway.
Because Dean also died at the scene, there was no arrest, criminal prosecution, trial or conviction arising from Dobbins’s killing. Police identified her as the person responsible and treated the deaths as an apparent murder-suicide rather than an unresolved homicide involving an unknown assailant. No later reports were located indicating that investigators changed that conclusion, identified another suspect or filed charges against anyone connected to the shooting.
