Daniel “Danny” Jay Whipkey, a 54-year-old White/Caucasian man, died at his home in Parkersburg, West Virginia, on August 23, 2014. Whipkey was a lifelong Parkersburg-area resident, born there on February 2, 1960, to Daniel and Nancy Doherty Whipkey. What initially appeared capable of being explained as an accidental death soon developed into a homicide investigation after authorities discovered that his injuries were far more serious than they had first appeared.
Parkersburg police found Whipkey dead with bruising at the residence on Lulu Street. His roommate, Robert Gagliardi, initially told investigators that Whipkey had health problems, had been drinking, and had fallen down the steps the previous night. During their first examination of the residence, investigators found a hole in a wall and other circumstances that appeared consistent with the possibility of a fall. Officers did not initially see obvious evidence establishing that someone had intentionally killed Whipkey, but the circumstances caused enough concern that his body was sent for an autopsy rather than his death simply being accepted as accidental.
The autopsy changed the direction of the investigation. Police said results received the following Monday showed that Whipkey had been beaten to death. As detectives began looking more closely at what had happened inside the Lulu Street residence, neighbors provided additional information, telling investigators that Whipkey and Gagliardi had a history of fighting. That information, combined with the autopsy findings, caused investigators to focus increasingly on Gagliardi and to question the explanation he had initially given for Whipkey's injuries.
Investigators intended to interview Gagliardi again on Tuesday, but the case then took another dramatic turn. Before detectives could conduct that follow-up interview, Gagliardi was found dead near Worthington Creek. Police described his death as an apparent suicide and said there was clear evidence that he had shot himself. The discovery meant that the person investigators were concentrating on in connection with Whipkey's killing could no longer be questioned about what had occurred inside the home.
Parkersburg Police Chief Joe Martin indicated that investigators believed Whipkey and Gagliardi were the only two people involved in the confrontation that resulted in Whipkey's death. At the time the case was publicly discussed, Martin stopped short of declaring the investigation formally closed because detectives still wanted to complete several interviews. Nevertheless, police considered the evidence to point toward Gagliardi as the person involved in the fatal fight and regarded Gagliardi's subsequent death as a suicide.
Because Gagliardi died while the investigation was still developing, there was no opportunity for police to arrest him in connection with Whipkey's killing, and no criminal charges, prosecution, trial, or conviction followed. The investigation therefore ended without a courtroom determination of responsibility. The available reporting indicates that investigators came to believe the fatal beating arose from a confrontation between the two roommates, with Gagliardi emerging as the principal suspect before taking his own life only days after Whipkey was found dead.
