Background: The Walmart located on Nitro Market Place in Cross Lanes, West Virginia (Google Maps). Inset: Eric Dewayne Richmond (Kanawha County Sheriff”s Office).
A man in West Virginia is accused of fatally shooting the mother of his children in a Walmart parking lot while she was on a break from work.
Eric Dewayne Richmond, 54, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 40-year-old Misty Rose Williams, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office announced. He is being held without bail in the South Central Regional Jail.
On Monday at about 9 a.m., Williams was working at the Walmart superstore on Nitro Market Place in Cross Lanes, West Virginia. She decided to take a break and went to her vehicle — but she never came back.
“I believe they get a 20-minute break and she didn’t return, it had been over an hour,” Sgt. Jeremy Burns with the sheriff’s office told West Virginia Metro News.
Williams’ co-workers went to check on her and noticed her inside her vehicle in the parking lot “slumped over inside,” authorities said.
Investigators realized Williams had been shot in the chest, and they searched through video surveillance of the time. It reportedly showed Richmond inside the store before the shooting and then walking outside during her break.
Richmond could also allegedly be seen getting in and out of Williams’ car several times before leaving the area. At one point, her car moved forward and struck a parked vehicle in the parking lot.
The sheriff’s office noted that Richmond “shares children with Williams.”
Burns said they brought Richmond in for questioning and arrested him. A 9 mm handgun was found in his home when law enforcement searched it.
Richmond was expected to be arraigned on Monday and then reappear in court on April 20.
