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Police say woman found dead in SUV had been strangled
Sometime in the three days before authorities found Misty M. Phillips in the back of her boyfriend’s Toyota 4 Runner, he strangled her, Augusta County investigators said Monday.
Authorities said autopsy results showing she’d been killed by strangulation confirmed their suspicions after interviews with Timothy Aaron Wilkins, 39, of Churchville, charged over the weekend with first-degree murder. He is being held without bond at Middle River Regional Jail.
Investigators said the killing happened outside Wilkins’ secluded single-story home on Lismore Lane.
Deputies arrested him in a Food Lion parking lot in Verona after responding to a 911 call at 11:30 p.m. Friday and finding Phillips in the rear cargo area of Wilkins’ sport utility vehicle.
“He was cooperative,” investigator Paul McCormick said.
Phillips and Wilkins had a six-year relationship, authorities said. It was a pairing marked by tumultuous nights, neighbors said.
Showing up on doorsteps in the middle of the night, sometimes toting a bottle of alcohol, Phillips complained that she feared for her safety and fretted that Wilkins carried a gun, neighbors said.
Loud music and fireworks frequently boomed into the night from the vicinity of his A-frame house, neighbors said.
Wilkins appeared Monday in Augusta County General District Court via video monitor. He said he would hire his own attorney.
“I’ve had one call me already,” he said, wearing a padded green suicide smock for inmates considered a risk to themselves.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10 for Wilkins.
He previously was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a controlled substance, but was not convicted, according to county court records. Phillips was convicted six times of public intoxication.
Police say woman found dead in SUV had been strangled
Sometime in the three days before authorities found Misty M. Phillips in the back of her boyfriend’s Toyota 4 Runner, he strangled her, Augusta County investigators said Monday.
Authorities said autopsy results showing she’d been killed by strangulation confirmed their suspicions after interviews with Timothy Aaron Wilkins, 39, of Churchville, charged over the weekend with first-degree murder. He is being held without bond at Middle River Regional Jail.
Investigators said the killing happened outside Wilkins’ secluded single-story home on Lismore Lane.
Deputies arrested him in a Food Lion parking lot in Verona after responding to a 911 call at 11:30 p.m. Friday and finding Phillips in the rear cargo area of Wilkins’ sport utility vehicle.
“He was cooperative,” investigator Paul McCormick said.
Phillips and Wilkins had a six-year relationship, authorities said. It was a pairing marked by tumultuous nights, neighbors said.
Showing up on doorsteps in the middle of the night, sometimes toting a bottle of alcohol, Phillips complained that she feared for her safety and fretted that Wilkins carried a gun, neighbors said.
Loud music and fireworks frequently boomed into the night from the vicinity of his A-frame house, neighbors said.
Wilkins appeared Monday in Augusta County General District Court via video monitor. He said he would hire his own attorney.
“I’ve had one call me already,” he said, wearing a padded green suicide smock for inmates considered a risk to themselves.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10 for Wilkins.
He previously was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a controlled substance, but was not convicted, according to county court records. Phillips was convicted six times of public intoxication.
