On a Sunday morning in March of 2019, a pre-arranged business meeting in a quiet gravel lot off Castleman Road in Clarke County, Virginia, took a tragic and violent turn. Jeffrey B. Evans, a 72-year-old Caucasian male from Bluemont, had met with Dale Lee Wright, a 50-year-old from Charles Town, West Virginia, for what was supposed to be a transaction.
An altercation erupted between the two men, culminating in Wright allegedly pulling out a gun and shooting Evans.
Despite his injuries, Evans managed to get back into his pickup truck and attempted to drive away. However, he only made it a short distance before crashing his vehicle at the intersection of Castleman Road and Route 7. Witnesses at the scene reported seeing Wright run over to Evans' truck after the crash before fleeing the area. When authorities arrived, they found Evans deceased inside his vehicle. His body was then transported to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Manassas for an autopsy.
The subsequent investigation, a collaborative effort involving the Virginia State Police, West Virginia State Police, Pennsylvania State Police, Tennessee Highway Patrol, and the Clarke County Sheriff's Office, quickly led them to a suspect. Dale Lee Wright was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. It was later revealed that the weapon used in the commission of the crime allegedly belonged to Evans himself. Wright was awaiting extradition from West Virginia to face the charges brought against him in Clarke County.
