Stanley Wilson
Appearances
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And it was dark, yes. Well, it was getting dark, but it did get dark on these folks. And interestingly, the West Virginia State Police Aviation happened to be out. And they were there on scene fairly quickly. And they had the infrared FLIR system and spotlights. And so they were able to illuminate that area, and then they were able to use the FLIR to look for thermal imaging and stuff.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And it was dangerous conditions. You know, we had these low flights with this helicopter. Now, you know, just kind of perched on the side. And, you know, it's certainly hate to work under helicopters at low altitude like that.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
But, you know, also the folks on those ropes at one point had to call out to the aviation asset and to leave the area because when they came in, the rotor wash was so that it was swaying the ropes and they were starting to get tossed about. There was a phone that was discovered at the bottom of the cliff and a shoe, a single shoe. And Rodney confirmed that those two items belonged to Julie.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
That's right. And then some of the folks that were doing the search itself, they talked about how even the terrain right there at the cliff, at the bottom of the cliff and the area around that wasn't disturbed. So other than a shoe and a cell phone, we had really nothing else there. So we just continued the search until we exhausted that at about 1 a.m.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
I was talking with one of the rangers that was on scene and he said that they were still searching. And I asked if they searched at the bottom of the cliff, you know, just kind of off the cuff. And he said, of course we did. And, and so, you know, it was just, it was just odd. You know, it's, if you fall from this point to this point, we look there and, um, I don't know.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
I'll say that, you know, we do a lot of search and rescue. And in this particular one with, you know, such a 70 feet is, you know, it's a pretty quick fall. But there was nothing there, no disturbance or anything at the bottom of that cliff.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
Support and privacy. You know, the post itself, you know, it struck me odd at least that he would so quickly do that.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
You know, folks really started to kind of give it a second look over. And so we were working with state police on, you know, on what our next steps should be and discovered that Julie was actually awaiting sentencing in federal court. Certainly it drew our attention and caused us to pause.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And actually to walk through the home, and of course nothing was found there. And so then, after it was over, West Virginia State Police decided to do a search warrant for all cell phones in the home. And when the trooper went into the bedroom, he opened up the closet door and he looked and in the floor he could see human legs. Julie was found hiding in her closet.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
So it was explained that she was laying, and so he shuts the door, and he's with another trooper, and he tells the other trooper to place handcuffs on Rodney. And when he opens the door again, Julie comes out with her hands raised and asking for forgiveness.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
Julie confessed to the whole scheme that she just didn't want to go to prison, and she thought this was her way out. And I asked her why she picked Grandview, and she said it was because of this vast view that you could see, and she wondered how we could search that entire area in a lifetime.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
I did. And she said she didn't really have a plan. She said that she thought she would just stay for a little while and just restart. How old was she?
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
So Rodney confessed that he and the juvenile had stood at the top of the rock, and he had handed the juvenile the two items and watched as they were thrown from the cliff.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
Julie told me that she had mastermind, that's her word, that she had mastermind this plan, and that she didn't know what was special about May 31st, but she said she looked at her husband earlier that day and said, today's go day. And so that's what set the plan in motion.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
I had just gotten off work when I got a phone call about an individual, reporting an individual had fallen from the Grandview overlook.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
It was explained to us that there were three of them, a juvenile and Rodney and Julie. were just walking. They had parked in an area called the North Overlook, and they had walked a trail that connects the two overlooks.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And according to Rodney, he had walked with his family almost to the overlook when he turned and went back to get the vehicle to move it around the area set up so that there's two parking lots. And so he's basically parked fairly far away from the main Grandview Overlook.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And his statement is that he went back to get the vehicle because Julie and the juvenile were thirsty and he was going to move the vehicle closer because he felt they were tired too. And so according to Rodney, he goes back to get the vehicle. He drives to the main overlook. He exits his vehicle and starts to walk out the trail to the main overlook.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And that's when he's met by the juvenile coming up the trail reporting that his mother has fallen off the cliff. And then he went on to say that the juvenile and the mother had went around a barrier to sit and almost dangle their feet from the cliff edge. And when they thought they heard Rodney coming back, they wanted to get back on the proper side of the fence.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And that when Julie stood up, she noticed that she had dropped the earring and bent to pick the earring up. And when she did, she fell from the cliff.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
So we put folks in the end of the woods with just headlamps and packs and just sent them walking down around the trail. We did have a rescue team with ropes respond, and they were able to anchor ropes to the top and repel from the cliff down to where... we would see this impact zone.
Criminal
The Bottom of the Cliff
And so we had a mixture of folks walking, you know, in kind of it's a very thick area so that just getting folks in there was a little bit troublesome because they had to, you know, work their way through this thick underbrush.