Courts and Crime

Todd Foreman has been appointed Chief of Police for the Town of Bedford.

An 18 year veteran of the Bedford Police Department, Foreman has served in the office of Lieutenant since 2009. He is a graduate of Liberty University, where he is completing work on a Master of Science degree.

Foreman is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy as well as the Professional Executive Leadership School sponsored by the University of Richmond. He succeeds Jim Day, who retired from the position after eight years.

Investigators have named a second person of interest in the abduction and slaying case of two sisters in 1975 in Montgomery County, Maryland, and a special grand jury is scheduled to convene Friday in Bedford County Circuit Court to help with the investigation.

For the past several weeks the four-decade long investigation into the missing girls has been focused in the Taylor Mountain area of Bedford County. A search for the bodies of the two girls has been ongoing over the rough terrain of the mountain.

    The deaths of two Evington residents whose bodies were found decomposing have been officially ruled as a murder-suicide.
    This week, Bedford County Sheriff’s investigators received the autopsy report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s on Ruby Laughon and Brent Laughon. Ruby Laughon died from multiple gunshots and Brent died from a single gunshot wound.
    The manner of death was ruled murder-suicide.

    A Bedford man, who struck and killed a man riding a bicycle on Va. 122 this past March, will spend the next seven-and-a-half years in prison for his actions that day.
    Michael Wayne Jenkins, 27, spent March 21 drinking beer and texting friends and family before he struck and killed Sean McQuaid, Jenkins entered no contest pleas to charges of hit and run with personal injury, aggravated involuntary manslaughter, both felonies, and disorderly conduct and first offense DUI, misdemeanor charges.