CASE 290West Virginia
2021
KJ Taylor
High-school football player KJ Taylor was killed in a drive-by shooting outside a convenience store in 2021. Investigators used recordings to trace a truck seen following his group before the attack.
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Showing 1–8 of 8CASE 289Beckley, West Virginia
2018
Joshua Webb
Restaurant worker Joshua Webb was shot outside a Beckley apartment building in 2018. Investigators followed a trail of security recordings to test conflicting accounts and identify those involved.
CASE 141West Virginia & Pennsylvania
2012
Skylar Neese
Skylar Neese left her West Virginia home with friends Rachel Shoaf and Shelia Eddy in 2012 and did not return. Investigators eventually learned the two had killed her in Pennsylvania. Their guilty pleas exposed a planned murder behind months of misleading accounts about her disappearance.
CASE 419Morgantown, West Virginia
2005
James “Jimmy” Michael
James “Jimmy” Michael died at the couple’s Morgantown home in November 2005. A house fire initially shaped the investigation, but toxicology evidence led investigators to examine a drug his wife, nurse Michelle Michael, could access at work. A jury convicted her of murder and arson in 2007. She maintained her innocence. In 2023, she sought a new trial over her lawyer’s performance. Snapped and John Glatt’s book revisit the evidence and competing accounts.
CASE 183Parkersburg, West Virginia, and the Ohio River valley, Ohio
1998–2017
Robert Bilott & the DuPont/PFOA case
Photo credit
Taft Law / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped/resized. Adaptations use the same license.Attorney Robert Bilott began representing a West Virginia farmer in 1998 and uncovered records concerning PFOA contamination near DuPont’s Washington Works plant. The wider litigation and environmental enforcement brought scrutiny to drinking-water exposure and the reporting of chemical risks. His work is dramatized in Dark Waters.
CASE 412Fayette County, West Virginia
1997
Jeremy Bell
Twelve-year-old Jeremy Bell died during a trip with his elementary-school principal. His family’s search for answers and the later investigation exposed serious questions about school oversight and the handling of evidence.
CASE 218Coalwood, West Virginia
1957–1960
Homer Hickam & the Rocket Boys
Inspired by the space race, Homer Hickam and his friends began building rockets in a West Virginia coal town. Their experiments offered a path toward education beyond the mines. Rocket Boys recounts the group’s work and community relationships; October Sky reshapes that memoir for the screen.
CASE 306Kanawha County, West Virginia
Year not confirmed
Cindy Mudd
Cindy Mudd, 71, disappeared in Kanawha County. Investigators followed a sequence of surveillance recordings while searching for her and examining the people involved.
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