ROANOKE

Driver in fatal SUV crash indicted

A Roanoke SUV driver who struck and killed a pedestrian last month was indicted Tuesday on a charge of driving while intoxicated for the third time in five years.

Keith Douglas Shupe, 33, was driving a Ford Explorer about 12:30 a.m. Aug. 21 when he lost control and crashed into a median, then a building near 10th Street Northwest and Grayson Avenue, police said. The Explorer flipped and rolled four times.

As it tumbled, it struck 44-year-old Edith Cook, who was walking home after helping with housecleaning at the residence of a cousin whose mother had recently died.

Cook died at the scene.

Shupe, a self-employed carpenter, was convicted in 2006 and 2008 of driving under the influence.

In the Aug. 21 crash, he was thrown from his vehicle and remained hospitalized three days later.

Carilion Clinic spokesman Eric Earnhart said Tuesday he had no information about Shupe.

A trial date in Roanoke Circuit Court has not been scheduled.

-- Mike Gangloff

Man charged after police recover remains

A man who police say kept the decaying remains of a slain woman in his Roanoke home was indicted Tuesday on charges of murder, use of a gun and hiding or altering a body to conceal its cause of death.

Neighbors of Lawrence Lee Hall Jr., 53, had complained about the smell wafting from his house in the 5100 block of Salem Turnpike, calling police to the home in the early morning hours of May 22. A search warrant said Hall let officers enter the house. Inside, they found the body of a woman wrapped in a blanket.

She was later identified as Becky Lee Ross, 49, of Roanoke.

Indictments returned Tuesday by a Roanoke grand jury accuse Hall of killing Ross sometime between March 9 and May 22.

Hall is being held in the Roanoke City Jail. A date for his next hearing has not been scheduled.

-- Mike Gangloff

BEDFORD COUNTY

Single-vehicle crash kills driver from Goode

A Goode man died Sunday, shortly after his sedan ran off a Bedford County road and crashed into trees, Virginia State Police said.

Bryce Lindwood Taylor, 43, was traveling north on Virginia 43, just south of Skinnell Mill Road outside Bedford, when his 1994 Lexus ES 300 ran off the right side of the road, Sgt. Rob Carpentieri said.

Taylor overcorrected and his car crossed the road, running off the left side and striking three trees. He was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the car, Carpentieri said.

Taylor was taken to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital after the 9 p.m. crash and died a short time later, Carpentieri said.

-- Amanda Codispoti