kyle morgan crime scene

"Oh no," was the commencement thought that came into the heed of erstwhile classmate and friend Erin Guy, a recent graduate of John Marshall High School. "I didn't believe it at first. I didn't want to believe it, and people start those kinds of rumors all of the time. But then I saw the news almost information technology, and that's when I but started remembering him.

"He was a cool kid, and at start he was missing, and people were trying to find him, and that stuff seems to happen a lot effectually here, so I still had hope that my friend would be found. I expected him to end up back in Kentucky, to be honest," she explained. "Just then I learned that he did die, and I was dumbfounded. Information technology hit me; I had lost a friend; and however, to this day, no one seems to know what actually happened."

Kyle Morgan was a kid from Kentucky who moved to his male parent's home in Marshall County nearly a year before he was discovered dead nether the Fort Henry Span in downtown Wheeling.

He was 15 years old; he told his friends he was catching a bus back to Kentucky, and he was driven to Wheeling by a 68-yr-old registered nurse on June 15, the evening earlier his remains were discovered in an under-bridge area situated but beyond a parking area for customers of Uncle Pete's Restaurant.

The cause of death was blunt forcefulness trauma to the head and was ruled a homicide by the state coroner. The victim was resting nether a blanket, his arms nether his head, in an area above the Heritage Trail and straight under the I-70 span. Law enforcement officials found no pipe, bat, or brick, and Morgan was not in possession of whatsoever form of identification or money, and the backpack he reportedly brought with him to Wheeling was not institute either.

That was one year agone; there are two police departments investigating the case, and the mystery remains unsolved.

Truth be told, law enforcement officials do non know where Morgan may take suffered the fatal injury or where he passed away.

"I haven't seen the (law-breaking scene) photos because I don't know if I tin can handle that, simply Dale (Kyle'southward father) has seen them, and he told me that I shouldn't expect at them," said Angela Hawkins, Kyle's mother, who is a lifelong resident of Kentucky. "He did tell me that Kyle was found lying on his tum with his arm under his head as if he was asleep. He was even covered by an sometime blanket that had already been down there.

"Someone made it look like he was asleep, and a homeless man found him the next day," she said. "I have become very frustrated with not knowing what happened to my son. I just want the person who did this to come forwards because this is just non right. We're talking about a fifteen-twelvemonth-erstwhile babe. He was a boy who was planning to join the U.s. Navy to pay for college. He had goals, and he had dreams. He wanted to get a designer of video games.

"He had the rest of his life in front of him," she said angrily. "And I believe someone took that life away from him. And for what?"

In a arid area above Heritage Trail is where a Wheeling man found Kyle under an old blanket.

One Wheeling Mother

"Kyle was tranquillity at commencement because he was the new kid, but after a little while he began to interact in the 2 classes nosotros had together," Guy recalled. "But there were several of usa girls who e'er thought that he was so adorable because he was pretty pocket-size for a freshman boy.

"He would talk with anybody, but we ordinarily had to offset the conversations with him," she recalled. "His accent wasn't necessarily southern, but information technology definitely wasn't a Due west Virginia accent for around here. He didn't have a big twang, merely he had a little bit of a twang."

Kim Castellucci is a mother of three, including a couple of teenage boys.

She grew upward across the street from a girl who was abducted, raped, and released, and that former friend was quickly moved away to a place where the shadows of such horror were no longer overbearing. That's how Castellucci, whose family moved away from Wheeling but returned a couple of years ago, learned at an early on age that evil could hurt even innocent children.

That's why Kyle's case caught her attention and why it's maintained her business organisation during the year since he passed abroad. Castellucci, in fact, wonders if nosotros care plenty.

"Of course, I feel a lot of empathy for the mother because I know sometimes the decisions teenagers make are not the all-time ones, and I feel like this could accept happened to a lot of parents that I know, and that it could take happened to my family," she said. "I know if my family unit was involved, I would want others in this community to show their support and their business concern, and I oasis't actually seen much of that.

"And I really became concerned with the case when I constitute out the mother was going to apply the money they raised for a headstone every bit reward money in exchange for information that led to a conviction," she continued. "I thought the situation had to be pretty bad that information technology came down to that decision, and information technology also struck me that maybe not as many people who need to see the news reports are not seeing or hearing the news reports because, perhaps, they don't pay attention to those things. I just don't think people should forget about this boy until someone pays for what they did to him."

It was within the media reports in mid-July that included newly found facts about how Morgan was transported to the Robert C. Byrd Intermodal Transportation Center on the evening of June 15. A female person juvenile spoke with investigators with the Moundsville Police Department and informed them her ex-boyfriend was somehow involved.

Kyle Jerry-Dale Morgan was an honor student and a football thespian who passed abroad 1 yr ago today.

Finally, those officers learned that Sharon Leach, a 68-year-onetime registered nurse, transported Morgan and other juveniles to Wheeling for $xx and an unknown amount of marijuana. On Aug. vii, Leach was arrested on charges including obstructing, possession of Schedule two narcotics, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and was jailed at Northern Regional. The obstruction and possession charged were later dismissed and Leach entered a Kennedy Plea that did non admit guilt but agrees there exists enough evidence for a conviction. She was sentenced to six months probation.

"The media reported the information they were given. I become that, and I am non blaming them, just the mention of marijuana may accept immune people to believe (Kyle) was into some bad things, and that makes me worry that the public might not take so much business concern for the victim," Castellucci said. "I can tell you that I don't think that way."

Castellucci has reached out to Hawkins via her Facebook Timeline, too, and the two moms have welcomed extended conversations about how someone in Wheeling might exist able to help with whatever. Information technology's been during those interactions that this Wheeling mother has realized that Hawkins has remained deplorable all the way downwards to her soul.

"Just looking about her Facebook page, I tin can tell. Her sadness seems never ending, and she at to the lowest degree is at peace that comes with knowing what happened to her son," Castellucci said. "It's probably a blessing that she doesn't live here in Wheeling because she doesn't take to drive by the memorial she put upwards near where he was found.

"I have gone to Kyle's memorial, and that's what got me a piddling more fired up about this case over again because I simply tin can't imagine how she must feel," she connected. "Someone should take to pay for what they did, and that'south why I believe if there is more coverage, it might prompt memories and more people might come forward with more clues. If that could happen, it would get the instance moving forward more, and that could only be a good matter.

"I know the detectives are working on it, but if more people came forrard, there'due south a better take a chance to observe out what happened and why it happened."

These posters were plastered all over the city of Moundsville very presently after the teenager was reported missing from his male parent'south home.

Needed: Directly Data

"They did have those posters all over school when it commencement happened, and they were however in place 7 months later because the police really believe someone somewhere knows what really happened to Kyle," Guy confirmed. "And those posters were however there during my senior year, and every fourth dimension I would run across them, they would make me sad, but it too reminded me that this case is still unsolved. It's crazy."

Was Kyle Morgan murdered in Wheeling?

Or did he pass away somewhere other than below a span that's traveled by more than 55,000 motorists heading eastward and west forth Interstate lxx?

In Ohio County?

In Marshall County?

And was it a fall or a brutal assault during a robbery?

"Nosotros do believe the swain died here in Wheeling, and until the time when that fact can be eliminated for whatever reason, this volition remain our homicide investigation until nosotros get this thing solved," Wheeling Police Detective Gregg McKenzie said. "But the Moundsville Police Department also is involved because that's where he was reported to be missing, where people knew him best, and where the people live who gave him the ride here to downtown Wheeling.

"From what we empathise, he was dropped off tardily in the evening the night earlier he was plant under the bridge, but we don't know what or who he encountered later he was dropped off at the location of the bus station that had closed and moved to 12^thursday and Market," he explained. "We don't know if he was but walking around, who he met, or how he got nether that bridge. We do not know what he did after he didn't go the bus ticket to get back to Kentucky. Obviously, there are a lot pieces of this puzzle that we are still trying to put together."

Information technology began with identifying the young victim, and that process did not begin until the teenager was reported missing a day afterward he vanished from his begetter's abode in Moundsville. It was six days after when the state Coroner's Office finally offered the horrible news to the parents.

No eyewitnesses. Nothing only rumors, many of which have been offered by a homeless person about another homeless person. Passed polygraph tests, a plethora of interviews, a backlogged offense lab

No direct information offered.

Constabulary officers and state trooper combed the area in search of whatsoever possible clues.

"We are still working this case every single day, but I know in that location are some people who don't think that we are. We are, though; trust me on that," McKenzie said. "If I was a parent of this young human, I would desire the answers, likewise, and I would want them immediately.

"Simply this instance has been worked on since the twenty-four hour period information technology happened in our city, and the instance has inverse hands internally because Det. (Gregg) Harris became a prevention resource officer. Now, Det. Rob Safreed is on it, and he's been talking to new people on a consistent basis," he said. "The officers in this department are all on it, too, because we want this solved. Nosotros want people to know that if you do things like this hither in Wheeling, you're going to get caught."

McKenzie, Harris, and Safreed have combed the homeless encampments that rest along abased roadways, along waterways, nether bridges similar the Fort Henry, and vacant structures. They nerveless equally much evidence from the scene as possible, and they have awaited the results ever since.

McKenzie did ostend that gaining Dna is a good possibility.

"It is, and we should have that data very shortly from the crime lab. I think most people know how inundated the one offense lab nosotros have in our state is all of the time. Information technology's unfortunate, but at this point we are at the mercy of that lab," the detective said. "Information technology's not a new issue. I've had to bargain with this issue for 22-plus years, only about people think that these kinds of cases can be solved in an hour, and in reality, that's merely not true.

"This boyfriend was found covered in an one-time coating, but nosotros really don't know if he covered himself up after a fight or something," McKenzie explained. "Nosotros but don't know, only I practice know that we have homeless people who stay down there, so it's possible someone saw something."

Lil' assist here?

"We take asked for help before, and we are asking of aid again. There have been a lot of occasions when we've asked for help, and the people of this Valley have given it to u.s.," McKenzie said. "We're going to continue working on it, and information technology's still a very active example, just it would really be helpful that people in the community, if they know annihilation, finally come up to usa with it. Information technology'south as piece of cake equally calling 304-234-3781. That's my direct line, and I would love to speak to those people who finally decide to help us put Kyle to remainder.

"If we don't become help with some quality information, this case may not ever be solved. Nosotros need to have people call in with some direct information, and if they care nearly their own family, they should care about this i and come forward," he added. "This family needs to know."

Kyle Morgan was raised in Kentucky past his mother Angela and her family.

The Steps of City Hall

"I only can't imagine it," Guy said. "His mom lived pretty far away, and for six days she didn't know where he was or what happened to him. I'm not a female parent, only I just take to believe she and Kyle's dad were in pure hell."

Angela Hawkins works equally many overtime hours as she tin at the plant where product labels are manufactured. She works a third shift, besides, so that way she gets to sleep her days away and work the overnights instead.

Information technology seems to continue the sadness away a niggling more that mode.

"I still have to brand coin to pay the bills I have," she said. "But Kyle is always on my mind and and so is finding out what actually happened to him. Why he was under that bridge? Why he had no money when nosotros know he did? Why he had to die?"

Kyle came to the Upper Ohio Valley before he began his freshman twelvemonth at John Marshall High School to live with his father. Hawkins said her son grew impatient some of the "business firm rules" and asked if he could move to Marshall County.

"He was getting to that age in boyhood when we were not getting along very well," the heartsick mother explained. "And then, I felt he needed to be around his dad more because boys demand their dads to do the hunting thing and the bonding thing. Nosotros all know most teenagers don't similar rules. I know I didn't.

"He moved to Marshall County about a year before his death, but he really didn't want to talk with me very much. He stayed upset with me, and every time I would call, he wasn't dwelling. At least that's what I was told," she said. "The last time I heard my baby's voice was, I believe, February before he was killed."

She received a phone telephone call informing her a member of law enforcement was on the way to run across with her, and when Hawkins chosen Kyle'due south father, she spoke with an officer who delivered the horrible news.

"I didn't want to wait. I wanted to know," she said. "That's when the detective said bluntly, 'Your son is dead.'

Kyle moved to Marshall County about a year earlier making his concluding trip to the city of Wheeling.

"Information technology's difficult to say whether or not I'll always know the truth, but I know one thing; God knows the truth, and I am sure with as many prayers that I and others have said, He will answer those prayers one day," Hawkins insisted. "I still don't want to believe this happened to my son. I just desire him to show up one 24-hour interval because this has all been the worst imaginable nightmare."

Then it got worse.

Hawkins, who has organized a rally for this morning time at 11 a.m. in front of the Metropolis-County Building on Chapline Street, accepted a Facebook bulletin from some other account fellow member not on her Friends list nearly four months later her son's burial in Kentucky. The individual claimed responsibleness.

"The person claimed that he killed Kyle, and he was very rude nigh information technology," she recalled. "He said he killed my son. He said he hit him in the back of the head and watched him drain out. He said that Kyle was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was nasty, too.

"He then apologized for it, but the police found out that information technology wasn't a existent admittance. They told me that it was just some sicko," Hawkins continued. "I merely actually don't sympathise why another man being would do something like that to another person."

It'south all the unanswered questions that haunt Kyle's parents, and it has been a year at present and nonetheless no one knows where to look next for another inkling. The "what," "when," and "how" are all answered, but the unsolved involves the "where," "who," and the "why."

"I've had a tough time with it," Kyle's mom said. "I'm not the same person, and I'grand lucky I take great people around me that all wish my baby would have made it home.

"And, from what we understand at present, Kyle wasn't even planning to come to my business firm when he came dwelling to Kentucky," Hawkins admitted. "He was planning on going to 1 of his all-time friend'due south, and yep, that would have bothered me.

"Just at least he'd exist here."

(Photos provided past Angela Hawkins)

Source: https://weelunk.com/kyles-case-unsolved-one-year-later/