Gabe Silverman is paving his rutted, dusty Amtrak parking lot. #
In a press conference this evening, Virginia State Police announced the discovery of remains presumed to be those of Morgan Harrington, missing since October. A farmer out inspecting his fences near Red Hill (just off 29S) discovered her remains this morning, which were identified by clothing and hair. An autopsy is necessary to authenticate the identity and to determine the cause of death. Because of the circumstances of her disappearance and the odd location where her remains were found, police are treating this as a likely homicide.
This will inevitably draw comparisons to the 1996 murder of Alicia Showalter Reynolds, the 25-year-old who disappeared while driving to Charlottesville from Culpeper on 29. Her body was found in a field in Culpeper County nine weeks later; the elapsed time and the heavy rain had rendered the crime scene devoid of clues, perhaps as in the current case. Nobody was ever convicted of Reynolds’ murder, although a 2007 investigation by the Frederickburg Free Lance-Star makes a compelling case that the now-deceased Richard Evonitz did it; he’s also believed to have killed Sofia Silva and the Lisk sisters.
There’s an unfolding story today of the remains of a female found on a farm in Red Hill, suspected strongly to be Morgan Harrington. #
Because not enough people are wishing ill upon him, developer Wendell Wood has clear cut a big chunk of Carter’s Mountain, where he’s building a 15,554 square foot mansion, Dave McNair writes for The Hook. Including unfinished space and outdoor living space, the whole thing comes to 30,000 feet—and the huge swath of trees that he’s taken out for 360° views means that the enormous structure is visible from all around. You can’t miss it while driving down 29 South, where it sits atop the mountain, interrupting the ridge line. (See The Hook’s photos.) Despite repeated efforts to get the Board of Supervisors to prohibit mountaintop construction—largely at the behest of wealthy local conservative Fred Scott (as in Stadium)—the ordinance has never passed, so such construction is entirely legal, if reprehensible.
I am halfway through the process of building my own house perched on a mountain—although it’s less than 5% of the size of Woods, and kept off of the main ridge—and I’ve become very familiar with the steps that are necessary to keep a mountainside house from becoming an eyesore. Woods isn’t just not taking those steps, but he appears to be actively doing anything that he can to make his site visible far and wide. If that’s the case, all he’s got to do is paint it a garish color, which no doubt is forthcoming. Building a house in this manner is a bit like renting a billboard to suggest to children that they try heroin—while perfectly legal, anybody who would do such a thing is a jackass.
Darden isn’t the only local school using Kindles: Burnley-Moran third graders are using ’em, too. #
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