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GRANTSVILLE – Two people charged in a kidnapping are among four suspects in the murder of a Parkersburg man also implicated in the kidnapping.
According to criminal complaints filed in Calhoun County Magistrate Court, both alleged crimes took place on Friday, July 22. The body of Lewis Maurell Bartlett III, 37, of Parkersburg, was found the next morning in a ditch along Hardman Fork Road in Mount Zion.
Charges of first-degree murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit a felony were filed Thursday in Calhoun magistrate court against Alex Justin Dunn, 27, of 4303 14th Ave., Parkersburg; Alisha Dawn Walker, 26, of the same address; Derryl “Obama” Anderson, 52, listed as homeless but a former resident of the same address; and Trudy Ellen Dowler, 38, of 79 Sandlewood Drive, Williamstown.
According to the complaints, the quartet drove with Bartlett to Hardman Fork Road in Dowler’s vehicle to recover methamphetamine and cash that “had been secreted by Lewis Bartlett III during an earlier incident on the aforementioned date in the event he was discovered by law enforcement at that time.”
After locating the drugs, the complaints say, Dunn killed Bartlett with two shots to the back and two to the head from a .22-caliber handgun. Anderson, whose statement is cited as being a source of the information in the complaint, then allegedly retrieved a semi-automatic pistol and the meth from Bartlett.
Anderson, Dowler and Dunn are being held without bond in the North Central Regional Jail, while Walker is at the Central Regional Jail, also without bond.
Dunn and Walker were charged earlier with kidnapping, burglary and conspiracy to commit a felony, also from a July 22 incident. According to those criminal complaints, Bartlett conspired with them and Adam Michael Miller, 24, of 703 Oak Grove Road, Walker, to kidnap and torture Josh Darwin Shrader, 27, of Elizabeth.
The complaints say Bartlett, Dunn, Miller and Walker picked Shrader up Friday in Wood County, then cut him with a switchblade and burned him with a blow torch lighter “until he told them what they wanted to hear.” West Virginia State Police Lt. C.A. Parsons said the suspects believed Shrader knew the whereabouts of a stolen red Jeep Liberty.
Shrader led them to property at 1284 Hardman Fork Road, Mount Zion, where the Jeep was supposedly located, the complaints say. While the others left to break into a camp on the property, Shrader fled to a residence, police have said.
At some point, Bartlett hid the money and meth nearby, Parsons said.
“He stashed those articles into the woods at that location to avoid discovery by law enforcement,” he said.
Miller was arrested that day on charges of obstructing and trespassing, according to a news release issued Thursday afternoon by State Police. Shrader was also arrested on a capias warrant for absconding from drug court in Wirt County.
Parsons said he does not know what changed to take Bartlett from a co-conspirator with Dunn and Walker in the earlier incident to their alleged victim.
“There’s still a lot that remains exactly unclear,” he said.
According to the release, Senior Trooper D.C. Moore, with the Grantsville State Police detachment, was contacted by Calhoun County 911 around 8:45 a.m. Saturday about a body being discovered in a ditch line off Hardman Fork Road. The trooper located the body at approximately 9:22 a.m.
Walker and Dunn were arrested on the kidnapping and related charges Sunday, then charged Thursday with murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit murder.
Anderson and Dowler were arrested Thursday and arraigned in Wood County Magistrate Court.
Bartlett is survived by his parents, his three children and other family members.
His father, Lew Bartlett, who lives in Texas near Dallas, said he appreciates the job the State Police are doing with the investigation. The elder Bartlett acknowledged his son struggled with drugs.
“He was doing no good,” he said. “I’m hoping, I’m praying no other parent has to go through this.”
The State Police release on Thursday was the first official confirmation of Bartlett’s death from the agency to The Parkersburg News and Sentinel after attempts to gain information earlier in the week. Spokesmen for the State Police and the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety said the case was a complex one and investigators involved were on the road a great deal.