In the fall of 2017, the life of Andrew Thomas Whipkey, a 34-year-old Caucasian male from Parkersburg, West Virginia, came to a sudden and tragic end. On October 21, 2017, events unfolded that connected him to a grim homicide investigation, culminating in his own death. This sequence of events began when the Wood County Sheriff's Office identified Whipkey as a person of interest in the death of Kevin Adam King, a 38-year-old whose body had been discovered behind a business on Emerson Avenue the
previous day.
Detectives sought to speak with Whipkey, an associate of King, regarding the ongoing homicide case. Late that Saturday afternoon, they made contact with him outside his residence on Spring Street. However, the encounter quickly escalated when Whipkey retreated into his home, refusing to emerge and speak with the authorities. Despite their attempts to communicate with him via his cellphone, he remained inside.
As law enforcement worked on obtaining a warrant to enter the residence, the situation took another dramatic turn. Whipkey exited his home, entered his vehicle, and drove a short distance away. Officers attempted to initiate a traffic stop, and Whipkey pulled into the parking lot of a Go Mart at the intersection of 16th and St. Marys Avenue. There, at approximately 5:12 p.m., before officers could engage him further, Andrew Thomas Whipkey took his own life with a single gunshot.
The investigation into Whipkey's death was handled by the Parkersburg Police Department, standard procedure when an outside agency is involved in the circumstances surrounding a death. While authorities described him as a "strong person of interest" in the homicide of Kevin Adam King, his suicide precluded any further direct investigation into his potential involvement. The case remained open as detectives continued to follow other leads.
