206: The Murder of Dolly Rose Grigsby

WEBVTT

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Southern fried True crime covers cases that
are not suitable for young listeners, and

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there may also be some explicit language
used. Listener discretion is advised. On

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the summer evening of July nineteenth,
nineteen ninety four, Dan Grigsby was slightly

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unsettled. He and his wife of
twenty five years, Dolly, had stopped

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by the Mercer Mall in Bluefield,
West Virginia. The couple was on their

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way home to pilgrimsnob Virginia, after
dropping their fifteen year old son, Danny,

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and his friend off at a football
camp in the West Virginia town of

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Athens, almost eighty miles away.
Dolly told Dan she wanted to take a

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detour on the way back to go
to the mall. Eager to get inside

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and check out the bargains, Dolly
and Dan agreed that she would head in

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first and Dan would meet up with
her in the Seares Electronics department. But

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when Dan made his way into the
mall a short time later, he couldn't

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find Dolly anywhere. He wasn't too
concerned, his wife had likely become engrossed

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looking around, but the longer Dan
waited, the more his concerns grew.

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It was unlike Dolly to not keep
her word about meeting up with someone.

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This was a woman who called her
loved ones if she unexpectedly left the house

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in case they needed her and she
wasn't at home. Feeling conflicted, Dan

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got back in the car and drove
home to Pilgrim's Nob, where he called

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the West Virginia Police. But in
the coming months, when the truth about

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what happened to Dolly emerged, it
was, depending on who you asked,

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either entirely predictable or the least likely
thing anyone could ever have expected. Welcome

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to Episode two o six, The
Murder of Dolly Rose Grigsby. Pilgrim's Knob

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in but Cannan County, Virginia is
a tiny mining community of less than five

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hundred people about three hundred and fifty
miles west of Richmond. It's in the

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far western part of the state,
just south of the West Virginia border.

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Though originally named for the fifteenth American
President, James Buchanan, I am in

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fact pronouncing Buchanan County like locals do. Settled in eighteen thirty three, It

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wasn't until over half a century later
that Pilgrim's Snob was officially named upon the

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opening of its very first post office. Situated on the Appalachian Plateau west of

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the Appalachian Mountains, The area was
a major coal mining source, driving the

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local economy since the early nineteen thirties. It was a cloudy, yet pleasant

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summer morning on July nineteenth of nineteen
ninety four, just seventy four degrees when

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Dolly Grigsby and her husband Dan,
and their teenage son Danny set out on

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a road trip. The couple drove
Danny and a friend to a football camp

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ninety minutes away at Concord University over
the state line in Athens. Forty two

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year old Dolly was a house proud
mom, totally devoted to her two children.

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She was also an active, dedicated
member of the Loggy Bottom Pentecostal Holiness

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Church in nearby Whitewood. Dolly Rose
was born on June fourth, nineteen fifty

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two, in Bartlett, Virginia,
to parents Noah and Velva. The Roses

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were your typical big Southern family,
with Dolly being one of thirteen children.

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Her forty three year old husband,
Dan Richard Grigsby was born around nineteen fifty

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one, one of six children to
parents William and Florline. It's not clear

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exactly where Dan was born, but
available records show both his parents were born

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in nearby Russell County. Dan and
Dolly were married on May twenty sixth,

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nineteen sixty nine, and Clintwood in
Dickinson County, Virginia. They really did

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appear to be childhood sweethearts. When
they were pronounced husband and wife, Dan

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was eighteen years old and Dolly was
just sixteen. While this is usually unacceptable

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by today's standards, it wasn't uncommon
in the late sixties. When Dolly was

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around twenty one years old, she
and Dan moved to Buchanan County, where

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they raised their two children, Diane
and Danny. Diane was born in nineteen

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seventy one and Danny in nineteen seventy
nine. I'm going to pause now for

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a short commercial break. Following Dan's
missing persons report, police wasted no time

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launching an investigation. Dan told law
enforcement that after dropping Danny and his friend

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at the football camp, he and
Dolly stopped at the state park in Hinton,

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West Virginia, before having an early
dinner at a fast food restaurant.

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The last stop on their road trip, and the last place Dan would see

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Dolly was the parking lot of the
Mercer Mall in Bluefield at around five point

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thirty pm. According to Dan,
he let Dolly out at the mall's main

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entrance while he went to find a
parking spot. After doing so, he

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went inside to sears, but Dolly
wasn't there. After searching for his wife

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for a while with no luck,
Dan got in the car and drove back

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to Pilgrim's Knob. He reported his
wife's disappearance to West Virginia State Police around

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two thirty am the next morning.
Dan told investigators that there hadn't been any

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issues out of the ordinary in the
Grigsby household. They had weathered the usual

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ups and downs that come with being
married for a quarter of a century,

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including Dan's chronic pain, which saw
the retired coal mine foreman no longer able

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to work. So Dan was at
a loss to explain why his wife would

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suddenly have run off. The only
thing he could think of causing any concern

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in Dolly's life recently were issues at
their church involving one of her closest friends.

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According to Dan, Dolly had told
him the church problems made her want

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to get away, but other than
that, she hadn't been upset or distressed

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about anything in particular, and it
was noted that it was completely out of

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character for Dolly to just take off
without saying anything to anyone. Dan didn't

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contact mall security before he left Bluefield, but it's not clear why, and

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it wasn't like the mall was around
the corner from their house. If Dolly

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had come outside to find her husband
and her only means of transport gone,

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it was at least a seventy five
minute drive home, Yet Dan told police

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he assumed that she had hitched a
ride. Questions remained as to why Dan

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didn't hang around longer to see if
his wife would show up, or at

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least contact local law enforcement right away. He had waited a full nine hours

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before reporting Dolly missing. It's understandable
Dan may have anticipated being told to wait

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twenty four hours before raising the alarm, but it did seem unusual because Dolly

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always let her husband and kids know
where she would be. According to the

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Bristol Harald Courier, Police from Buchannon, Craig and Dickinson Counties, in addition

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to West Virginia State Police, searched
a forestate area for the missing woman.

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Law enforcements. Multi jurisdictional search extended
to Kentucky and Tennessee, where Dolly had

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relatives. A detailed description of Dolly
at the time of her disappearance was widely

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publicized. She was five foot seven, had a fair complexion and sandy graying

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hair that appeared frosted. She had
been wearing a light tan, mid length

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skirt, matching blouse with three quarter
length sleeves and light green and yellow horizontal

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stripes with white sandals. She also
wore blue prescription glasses and had a scar

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above her right eye, and she
was carrying a brown Aigne brand purse.

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Even though he had waited to report
her missing, when he did, Dan

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immediately jumped into action, publicly doing
what he could to try and bring Dolly

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home safe. He spent thousands of
dollars on ads and the Bristol Harold Courier

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pleading for any information as to Dolly's
whereabouts. In one of many stories in

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the newspaper, Dan begged for anyone
to make contact if they had spoken to

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his wife, saying, quote,
if anyone knows anything, we just want

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them to let us know. That
she's okay. If she reads this,

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we just want her to call her
family to let us know she's all right.

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However, as the days and then
weeks passed, Dolly made no contact

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with her family or friends. Her
distraught loved ones hoped that something uncharacteristic had

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have preventing her from calling home.
Dan was a regular fixture at church,

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leaning on his spiritual community for much
needed emotional support, but as more time

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passed, everyone's fears grew. It
was increasingly unlikely that Dolly would be found

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alive. However, with no proof, everything was still up in the air.

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The disappearance was all anyone in Pilgrim's
Knob and the surrounding areas could talk

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about. In August, Virginia State
Police were brought in to assist, under

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the leadership of Special Agent Jack Davidson. By early September, Dan's ads,

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published in the Bristol Herald Courier were
accompanied by news of a five thousand dollars

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reward for any information about Dolly's disappearance
that would be over ten thousand today.

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Dan continued to cooperate fully with police, even taking a polygraph, but according

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to Rowanoake Times, his results proved
to be cause for concern. Out of

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ten questions, Dan felt the three
most significant, asking specifically about Dolly's whereabouts,

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and by now law enforcement knew something
Dan did not know. They knew.

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Investigators had learned that Dan and Dolly
had not stopped by Mercer Maul at

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all. Police had suspected from the
very start that Dan not only knew more

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than he had let on, but
was directly involved in his wife's disappearance.

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According to The Roanoke Times, discontent
bubbled not far from the surface. In

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the Grigsby marriage detectives learned things were
said to be so bad between the couple

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that in August nineteen eighty seven and
again exactly a year later, Dolly had

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filed for divorce. She suspected Dan
of being unfaithful and also claimed he had

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been physically, emotionally and mentally abusive, But on each occasion, the couple

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reconciled and Dolly withdrew the filing.
Indeed, according to friends of the couple,

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their relationship had outwardly been back on
track by the time Dolly disappeared.

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In cases where there don't seem to
be any leads or sufficient evidence to lead

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to an arrest. Law enforcement relies
on the public coming forward with information to

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crack the case. All it takes
is one person, and this is exactly

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what happened in the case of Dolly
Rose Griggsby. In early October, investigators

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were contacted by a clintwood Man,
thirty eight year old Mickey Breeding. Mickey

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was friends with Dan's thirty nine year
old brother, Ken Griggsby, and what

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he had to say was shocking.
If true, it would confirm what police

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had suspected all along. Mickey revealed
that Ken had asked him to help Dan

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dispose of Dolly's body. On October
fifth, Mickey accompanied state police to an

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area near tub Run Road in the
Jefferson National Forest in Craig County, Virginia.

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There, he directed investigators to what
he said were Dolly's badly decomposed,

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dismembered partial remains buried in multiple brown
plastic bags underneath rocks in a creek bed.

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Mickey also directed them to a separate
site a couple of miles away,

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where a partial human jawbone with an
intact muller was recovered, along with ten

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other loose teeth, Dolly's underwear,
and a blanket. Micky claimed had been

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wrapped around Dolly's body. One thing
missing, though, was Dolly's head.

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When investigators contacted Ken, they learned
that Mickey wasn't making anything up. The

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next day, October sixth, eleven
weeks after Dolly was reported missing, her

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husband was charged with first degree murder
in using a fire and the commission of

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a felony. As Dan Grigsby was
immediately deemed a flight risk and there were

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concerns he would attempt to target witnesses, he was held without bond. He

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refused to talk, only asking for
an attorney. I'm going to pause now

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Police publicly acknowledged that there was a
motive for this laying, but refused to

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elaborate. If convicted, Dan was
facing twenty years to life in prison for

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the murder charge and one to five
years on the firearm charge. Dan's brother

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Ken and his friend Micky Breeding were
both charged with the misdemeanor of being an

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accessory. Until their preliminary hearings on
November eighth and Craig County General District Court,

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both men were free on bond.
Along with the partial jawbone. Dental

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records confirmed the remains were those of
Dolly Grigsby. At her autopsy, the

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medical examiner found the wife and mother
of two had been shot at least three

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times in the back and chest with
a thirty two caliber handgun. Two bullets

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were still lodged in Dolly's torso,
with a chest wound proving fatal. The

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level of decomposition indicated her remains had
lain where they had been found for at

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least a month. I cannot imagine
how painful this whole ordeal was for Dolly's

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children, Diane and Danny. By
this time, twenty three year old Diane

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was married and living with her husband. They took Danny in without a second

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thought, later becoming his legal guardians. Remember, Diane was about eight years

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older than her brother, who would
have been about fifteen. At Dan's preliminary

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hearing in early November in Craig County
General District Court, he pleaded not guilty

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to murdering Dolly. He also denied
recruiting Ken and Mickey to dispose of Dolly's

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remains or accompanying them to the forest
to do so. At Ken's preliminary hearing

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in December, though, he had
a very different account. He said Dan

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told him, his wife and their
daughter that he had killed Dolly at Dan's

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hunting cabin in the forest following an
argument, though Ken didn't know what the

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argument was about. Dan then asked
his brother to help hide her body.

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The court also heard that Dan then
told Mickey he had killed Dolly. In

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the end, Ken waved his right
to a preliminary hearing. He would be

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automatically sent to a grand jury in
the new year. Later in December,

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Dan's bond was set at two hundred
and fifty thousand. He waived his right

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to be indicted by a grand jury, opting to proceed straight to a bench

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trial. In February nineteen ninety five, Kin was indicted by a grand jury.

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If convicted, he faced up to
twenty years in prison. As the

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date of Dan's trial grew closer,
Kin knew that if he gave up further

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information, this could only help his
own case. Just before Dan's trial,

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began. Ken told police that Dolly's
head was buried in his late father's garden.

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At Dan's one day trial in May
nineteen ninety five, Commonwealth Attorney Thaddeus

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Cox told the court that some time
before the murder, Dan bought the thirty

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two caliber revolver from a man in
Clintwood, Virginia. Ken Grigsby was the

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prosecution's star witness, along with his
wife and daughter. Ken testified that Dan

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told him that on July nineteenth,
he took Dolly on a walk through the

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Jefferson National Park near his hunting cabin. After briefly running back to his vehicle

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to retrieve his gun, but telling
Dolly he was fetching a soda, Dan

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caught up to his wife. After
helping her over a fallen tree, he

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shot her. He wrapped his wife's
body in a green blanket before dragging her

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to a dry creek bed. Dan
then dug a shallow grave and covered the

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site with rocks. Ken told the
court that Dan, concerned the body would

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soon be discovered, approached him,
who recruited Mickey to dispose of Dolly's remains.

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Dan paid the men six hundred dollars
each about twelve hundred. Today,

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Dan, Ken, and Mickey drove
out to the forest where Ken and Mickey

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dug up Dolly's body in order to
prevent her from being identified. The men

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decapitated Dolly before burying her head two
miles away. The following week, Ken

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and Mickey returned to the site where
Dolly's head had been buried. Upon Dan's

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request. They dug it up and
Ken took it back to Dickinson County.

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But what he didn't know, either
from the level of decomposition or something else,

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was that Dolly's lower jawbone was left
there. This allowed investigators to recover

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it when Mickey later escorted them to
the scene. On a third visit to

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the forest, Mickey and Ken again
dug up Dolly's remains, this time to

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dismember her. They haphazardly stuffed her
body parts into plastic bags before hastily burying

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them under rocks in a creek bed. In an attempt to divert suspicion away

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from himself. Dan then went public
with his intense focus on searching for his

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missing wife, hence the ads and
the frequent emotional breakdowns at church. But

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at trial, there was corroborative evidence
from other witnesses about Dan confessing to multiple

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people. I'm going to pause now
for a final commercial break. Dan didn't

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00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:30.000
take the stand in his own defense. His attorney, Carl McAfee, did

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his best to argue for the first
degree murder charge to be downgraded to second

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00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:41.279
degree murder, relying on the prosecution's
responsibility to prove intent, which seems like

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it would be an easy feat for
the Commonwealth considering Dan's purchase of the gun

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beforehand. A defense psychiatrist also testified
that on the day of the murder,

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Dan drank beer and was under the
influence of ten different medications for chronic pain

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and severe deppression. As psychiatrist also
spoke about Dan's two previous attempts at taking

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his own life, claiming that prior
to the murder, he told a psychologist

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that if Dolly ended the marriage,
he would kill her and then himself.

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For these reasons, the defense claimed
Dan was incapable of knowing right from wrong,

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but Circuit Judge Duncan Bird Junior didn't
buy it, finding Dan sane at

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the time of the murder, as
well as guilty on both charges. On

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August twenty first, nineteen ninety five, Dan was sentenced to fifty years in

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prison on the first degree murder charge
and three years for the firearm charge seven

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months earlier. In January nineteen ninety
five, sentencing reforms in Virginia saw discretionary

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parole abolished for felonies committed in or
after that year. Inmates would be required

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to serve at least eighty five percent
of their sentence, though they could or

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in credit for g good behavior,
which would count toward potential early release.

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But as Dan murdered Dolly before the
new law came into effect, he would

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be eligible for parole in just another
fourteen years. And what of Dan's accomplices,

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his brother Ken and Mickey Breeding In
June nineteen ninety five, Ken was

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convicted of being an accessory after the
fact and sentenced to twelve months in prison.

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That same month, the charge against
Mickey was dismissed in return for his

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cooperation with investigators and his information which
directly resulted in Dan's conviction. It's not

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clear from the available information whether the
murder weapon was ever recovered. In subsequent

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years. Dan has submitted numerous appeals, but all of these have been dismissed.

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Today, seventy two year old Dan
is incarcerated at the Deerfield Correctional Center

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in Caprin, Virginia. He became
eligible for parole around two thousand nine and

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has applied multiple times over the years, his most recent attempt last year in

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00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:14.440
twenty twenty three. These parole attempts
have all been denied due to the seriousness

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of Dolly's murder. Dan's prison records
indicate a scheduled release date of April two

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00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:25.240
thousand thirty three, which would mean
he would serve only thirty eight years of

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00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:30.039
his fifty three year sentence, but
he will be eighty three years old if

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00:24:30.039 --> 00:24:34.319
he lives that long. But given
his parole denials to date, it's likely

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00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:40.880
that Dan will die in prison.
No real motive other than the possible argument

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00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:47.039
of the hunting cabin has ever been
established or publicized. But of course Dolly

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00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:52.559
had already accused her husband a physical
and emotional abuse, and since Dolly Grigsby

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00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:59.079
had already falled for divorce twice,
perhaps Dan's motive was the same disgusting reason

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00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:04.839
so many abusive men kill their wives
control. Maybe there was a fight that

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00:25:04.920 --> 00:25:11.000
awful day and Dolly said she was
done for good, but Dan had brought

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00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:15.359
a gun and taken his wife to
an isolated area so it would seem he

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00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:18.680
planned to kill his wife of twenty
five years, the mother of his children,

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00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:29.640
and then coldly having her body dismembered. Dolly Grigsby was only forty two

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years old. She had her whole
life ahead of her. She had children

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00:25:33.319 --> 00:25:40.400
she loved and future grandchildren to cherish, but it was all ripped away from

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00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:44.759
her by her jealous and abusive husband
who just would not let her go.

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He would rather see her dead.
Southern Fried True Crime is hosted and produced

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00:25:53.799 --> 00:25:59.240
by me Erica Kelly. Today's episode
was researched and written by Jimma Harris.

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00:25:59.559 --> 00:26:04.039
As usual, any editorial comments and
opinions are my own. Southern Fred's original

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00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:08.240
music is by Rob Harrison of Gamma
Radio and the original graphic artist by Kly

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00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:12.720
Horner. If you have any case
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SFTC Research at gmail dot com.
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