In the quiet neighborhood of Kiln Creek in Newport News, Virginia, the night of June 15, 2022, was shattered by an act of violence that claimed the life of 35-year-old Logan Edward William Thomas. A male employee at the 7-Eleven on Kiln Creek Parkway, Thomas was shot and killed during a suspected robbery.
Just before midnight, a customer arrived at the convenience store to find it unusually quiet, prompting a call to the police about a suspicious situation. Responding officers entered the store to a grim scene, discovering the bodies of two men who had been fatally shot. The victims were identified as Logan Thomas and the store's owner, 52-year-old Preyesh Patel. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene.
In the days that followed, the Newport News Police Department released surveillance footage from the time of the incident. The video showed a person with their face masked, walking into the store at 11:36 p.m. carrying a bag and armed with a gun. Despite the release of this footage and pleas from law enforcement for public assistance, the individual responsible for the double homicide has not been identified. Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew stated that the leading theory is that the motive for the killings was robbery.
The investigation into the tragic deaths of Thomas and Patel has remained ongoing. In a later development, in July 2025, federal authorities took a woman named Zoe Chandler into custody. She was charged with failing to appear in court for a subpoena connected to the case, with law enforcement believing she possesses information about the double murder. However, it was not specified what her connection to the case might be, and as of that time, no arrests had been made directly for the murders of Logan Thomas and Preyesh Patel. The community was left mourning the loss of two of its members, hoping for a resolution to a senseless act of violence.
