In the late hours of a Wednesday evening in June 2022, a devastating event unfolded inside a 7-Eleven on Kiln Creek Parkway in Newport News, Virginia, shattering the lives of two families. Preyesh Patel, a 52-year-old man and the owner of the convenience store, was shot and killed in what authorities believe was a robbery attempt. The tragic incident, which occurred on June 15, also claimed the life of his employee, 35-year-old Logan Edward William Thomas.
The alarm was raised when a
customer noticed a lack of activity within the store and alerted the police to a suspicious situation. Responding officers made a grim discovery, finding both Patel and Thomas deceased inside the establishment. The initial investigation pointed towards a robbery as the motive behind the fatal shootings.
In the days that followed, the Newport News Police Department released surveillance footage to the public in the hopes of identifying the person responsible. The video showed a single, masked individual entering the 7-Eleven, immediately raising a handgun. This person, whose identity remains unknown, is the primary suspect in the double homicide. The grainy images offered a glimpse of the perpetrator, but no immediate arrests were made, leaving a community in fear and two families grappling with an immense loss.
For years, the case remained a painful, unsolved mystery, a source of ongoing grief for the families of Preyesh Patel and Logan Thomas. Investigators continued to follow leads, but the trail to the killer grew cold. However, a significant development emerged in July of 2025 when federal authorities took a woman into custody in connection with the case. The woman was detained for failing to appear in court for a subpoena related to the three-year-old murder investigation. While she is not accused of the murders, authorities believe she possesses information that could be crucial to solving the double homicide. Despite this progress, the individual who walked into the 7-Eleven on that fateful night and ended two lives has yet to be brought to justice, leaving the community and the victims' loved ones still searching for answers and closure.
