Wayne Gadd, a 79-year-old White/Caucasian male, died from gunshot wounds in Forest Hill, West Virginia, on September 11, 2015, in a disturbing double-death investigation that also involved his wife, Patti Gadd. The couple’s bodies were not discovered by authorities until several days later, when deputies with the Summers County Sheriff’s Office were called to their home. Sheriff Garry Wheeler described what deputies encountered as an extremely bloody scene and said both Wayne and Patti had unquestionably been shot.
Investigators determined that Wayne had been shot at least once, although the sheriff said there was reason to believe he might have been struck by a second gunshot. Patti had been shot twice. Evidence inside the residence further complicated the investigation because Patti’s body had apparently been moved into a bedroom after she was wounded, leaving a blood trail from the place where the shooting occurred.
By the time authorities entered the house, Wheeler estimated that the couple had been dead for at least three days and possibly longer.
The person who contacted authorities was the couple’s son, John Edward Gadd. His account immediately became central to the investigation because he acknowledged that he had shot Wayne. John told investigators that his father had accidentally shot Patti and that he subsequently shot Wayne in self-defense. According to the version he gave authorities, the first shooting was accidental and the second occurred because John believed he needed to protect himself. Investigators did not immediately accept that explanation as resolving what had happened inside the home.
Sheriff Wheeler publicly expressed serious doubts about circumstances surrounding the account, particularly the amount of time that passed before law enforcement was contacted. If Patti’s shooting truly had been accidental and Wayne had then been shot legitimately in self-defense, the sheriff questioned why John had not immediately called authorities while the scene and evidence were fresh. Instead, the bodies remained in the residence for days. The movement of Patti’s body and the delayed report left investigators with significant unanswered questions about the sequence of events and what occurred after the shootings.
John Edward Gadd was arrested and charged during the investigation, although the publicly reported charges at that stage were not murder charges. Authorities charged him with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of concealing a dead body. Those charges reflected both his alleged possession of the firearm and investigators’ conclusion that the deaths had been concealed rather than promptly reported. Sheriff Wheeler said at the time that possible murder charges remained under consideration while investigators waited for information from the medical examiner and continued trying to determine whether the physical evidence supported John’s explanation.
Wayne’s death therefore remained tied to an unusual and unresolved account: his own son admitted firing the shot that killed him but claimed the shooting was an act of self-defense following the accidental shooting of Patti. Law enforcement treated the circumstances with considerable suspicion rather than immediately clearing John on the basis of that claim. The available online reporting establishes John’s arrest on the firearm and body-concealment charges and the sheriff’s statement that homicide charges were being considered, but it does not provide reliable documentation showing that John was subsequently convicted of murdering Wayne or that a murder trial ultimately established a different sequence of events.
