Vadie Michelle Maynard, who was known in contemporary news coverage by her married name, Michelle Stroud, was a 29-year-old White/Caucasian female from the Kermit, West Virginia area. She was a mother of one and a native of Martin County, Kentucky. At the time of her death, she worked for the Mingo County Health Department and had previously worked with the Mingo County Sheriff's Department. On the morning of September 21, 2009, she dropped her child off at school at approximately 8:30 a.m.
and then disappeared. When she failed to return, her family reported her missing, beginning a search that would end in tragedy.
Investigators learned that her vehicle had been left near the old Heilig-Meyers property along U.S. Route 52 in the East Kermit area, roughly five miles from her home. According to Mingo County Sheriff Lonnie Hanna, her estranged husband, Roger Stroud, picked her up at the old warehouse and drove her to an isolated mining area associated with Kermit Coal. Authorities said the two got out of the vehicle and began talking, but the conversation developed into an argument. During that confrontation, Stroud pulled out a revolver and shot Maynard multiple times.
After the shooting, authorities said Stroud placed Maynard's body inside an old refrigerator that had already been in the back of his truck. The refrigerator containing her remains was later abandoned in a wooded area on Newsome Ridge between Dingess and Kermit. Approximately 30 hours after Maynard had disappeared, a family member discovered her body on September 22. The discovery transformed what had begun as a missing-person search into a homicide investigation, and law-enforcement officers continued searching the surrounding wooded area for evidence after her remains were recovered.
Attention quickly focused on Roger Stroud. Relatives told reporters that the couple was estranged and was in the process of divorcing. Stroud was arrested by Mingo County authorities on the evening of September 22. Sheriff Hanna subsequently said Stroud had essentially admitted what he had done, and reporting based on the investigation described him as confessing that he shot his wife several times and concealed her body in the refrigerator. Prosecutors charged Stroud with first-degree murder and concealment of a body.
The case did not ultimately proceed through a full murder trial. In September 2010, approximately a year after the killing, Stroud pleaded guilty to fatally shooting Maynard at the mining site on September 21, 2009. His guilty plea established his criminal responsibility for the killing and brought the prosecution to its sentencing stage. The following month, Stroud was sentenced to life imprisonment with mercy. Under the sentence imposed, he would become eligible for consideration for parole after serving 15 years, although eligibility did not guarantee that parole would be granted.
Maynard's death left behind a child, grieving relatives and friends, and a community confronted with an especially disturbing homicide. What began with an ordinary school drop-off ended with her disappearance, an intensive search, the discovery of her remains concealed in a discarded refrigerator, and the arrest of the person who had been her husband. Stroud's subsequent confession, guilty plea, and life sentence brought a legal resolution to the case, while the circumstances surrounding the killing became associated locally with efforts to raise awareness about domestic violence.
