Daniel Dale Long, a 37-year-old White man, was killed inside his family’s home on Cemetery Hill Drive near Elkview, West Virginia, in December 2020. Long, an Army veteran originally from Fort Ashby, lived there with his wife, Risa Mae Saunders-Long, and their children. Although the family was discovered on December 13, investigators and later trial testimony established that the killings occurred several days earlier, on December 9.
The silence surrounding the home began to worry
relatives after they were unable to reach the family. On December 13, a family member went to the residence and found the front door unlocked. Inside, authorities discovered Long and his wife dead in their bed, both having been shot in the head. Twelve-year-old Gage Ripley was found near the bed, while three-year-old Jameson Long was discovered partially beneath his crib with a blanket over him. Both children had also been shot in the head.
Investigators quickly focused on Saunders-Long’s teenage son and Long’s stepson, Gavin Smith, who was 16 when the killings occurred. Smith had left the home after the shootings and was taken into custody along with his girlfriend, Rebecca Lynn Walker, who was 17 at the time. Smith was initially charged as a juvenile with four counts of murder, but a judge later ruled that he would be tried as an adult because of the seriousness of the crimes.
Prosecutors presented the murders as a calculated effort by Smith to escape family restrictions and remain with Walker, a relationship that members of his household reportedly opposed. Trial testimony revealed that Walker was communicating with Smith by video call during the shootings. Prosecutors argued that Smith killed his mother, stepfather and younger brothers and then fled with Walker, while she helped him avoid authorities after the crimes. Smith’s defense did not deny that he carried out the shootings but argued that tensions and alleged abuse within the household affected his state of mind and that the killings did not amount to premeditated first-degree murder.
Walker eventually reached a plea agreement with prosecutors. She pleaded guilty as an adult to four counts of accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, and four murder charges originally brought against her were dismissed. In September 2021, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Her conviction reflected the finding that she assisted Smith after the family had been killed rather than being held legally responsible as the person who fired the shots.
Smith went to trial in Kanawha County Circuit Court in December 2022. After hearing testimony about the scene, the shootings and Smith’s communications with Walker, the jury convicted him of three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Long, Saunders-Long and Gage. He was convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of Jameson, the youngest child, and was also found guilty of using a firearm during the commission of a felony.
In January 2023, the judge imposed the maximum punishment permitted in the case. Smith received three life sentences with the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder convictions, 40 years for second-degree murder and another 10 years for the firearm offense. The sentences were ordered to run consecutively. Although the life sentences included mercy, making eventual parole consideration legally possible, the consecutive terms left Smith facing an extraordinarily long period of incarceration.
The investigation therefore resulted in arrests, adult prosecutions and convictions for both teenagers connected to the aftermath of the killings. Smith was identified as the gunman and convicted of murdering Long and the other members of the household, while Walker was convicted of helping him after the crime. What initially appeared on December 13 to be the sudden discovery of four deaths was ultimately shown to be a family massacre committed days earlier, followed by an attempt to flee and conceal what had happened.
