A body found in rural Virginia has been positively identified as missing Reserve Capt. Kevin Wayne Quick of the Waynesboro (Va.) Police Department.
According to the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, a positive identification was made Friday evening. The cause and manner of death were not being released at this time, police said.
Speaking to a crowd of onlookers and reporters outside the Waynesboro Police Department on Saturday, Sgt. Brian Edwards said words were not enough to "express the sorrow we feel."
Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Quick's body was found last Thursday in a rural area of Goochland County. The location of the discovery is midway between Richmond and Charlottesville, Geller said.
Authorities have made six arrests in connection with the case over the past week.
On Friday, Halisi Uhuru, also known as Girt Wright, 22, of Danville; Leslie Hope Casterlow, 49, of Manassas; and Anthony Darnell Stokes Jr., 31, of Manassas were taken into custody. They all have been charged with felony gang participation and what is called “principle in second degree to the crime of murder.” Anthony L. White, 22, of Mineral, was arrested Sunday in Louisa County. He faces a felony gang participation charge.
These four suspects are being held at the Henrico County Jail. They are expected to appear in court Monday afternoon.
According to The Daily Progress, Stokes previously served a total of 14 years in prison for multiple crimes, including kidnapping, weapons possession, robbery and use of a firearm in a robbery. The newspaper also reported that Uhuru was recently released from prison following a 2008 conviction for gang participation, robbery and conspiracy to commit a robbery.
On Feb. 4, before Quick's body was found, police arrested a brother and sister in connection with the officer's disappearance. Daniel Mathis, 18, also known as Daniel Shelton, and Mersadies Shelton, 20, were taken into custody and charged by state police with grand larceny for the theft of Quick's silver 1999 Toyota 4Runner. Police said Mathis is also being questioned in connection with a Feb. 2 shooting in Louisa County.
A third sibling, 24-year-old Shantai Shelton, was also taken into custody on an unrelated outstanding arrest warrant for selling stolen property and obtaining money by false pretense.
In regard to the gang-related charges, Geller, the Virginia State Police spokeswoman, declined to name the gang or to elaborate on the connection.
"These individuals have a connection ... an affiliation with Kevin Quick's death," she said. "That does not say that they are responsible for his death."
Quick, 45, of Rockfish, Va., had been a member of the Waynesboro Police Reserve Unit since 1990. Authorities said he was a valued member of the reserve unit and well-known in the community. His father was a colonel in the police reserves and an active member of the unit from 1993 until his death last year.
Authorities said Quick was last seen alive on the evening of Jan. 31, when he left his mother's Afton home to visit the mother of his child. Afton is located about 20 miles west of Charlottesville, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Quick never arrived at his girlfriend's house and was reported missing on Feb. 1.
Cellphone records indicate that Quick's phone was shut off at 10:54 p.m. on the night he went missing. Financial records further indicate that he had not used his Discover card since 5:54 p.m. that day, police said.
On Feb. 2, authorities obtained surveillance photos that showed Quick's Toyota 4Runner was in Fork Union on the night of his disappearance and in Manassas on Feb. 1. Fork Union is located about 50 miles southwest of Afton. Manassas is in the opposite direction, approximately 100 miles northeast of Afton. The surveillance photos also showed two unidentified people, police said.
The Toyota 4Runner was found abandoned in Mineral on Feb. 3. Geller told HuffPost that the vehicle was found by a deputy with the Louisa County Sheriff's Office. Inside the vehicle police found a wallet, rubber gloves and fingerprints.
The FBI assisted in the investigation into Quick's disappearance. In addition, several community businesses contributed to a $30,000 reward for information leading to Quick's whereabouts.
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