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My 18 year old brother Alan Rich was killed on November
24, 1984 while on a hunting trip with a hunting party in Surry county, Virginia. They said my brother's gun
was having safety problems and my brother turned his double barrel 12 gauge shot gun toward his face and pulled the trigger
and said "See the saftey works" and the gun went off on accident. Another story said he was banging the gun on the ground
and it went off and the other was the he was swinging the gun around and it went off. A good friend of Alan's told me
that Alan knew the safety did not work and so he was very careful with the gun and would have never turned the gun
to his face. Alan was 6'1 1/2 feet tall and weighed 250lbs. They said he was sitting on a log and when
he pulled the trigger. The gun fell back and landed directly on him. The Sheriff said he took pictures but now
he says he didn't take them. The Medical Examiner from a different county (Surry County Medical Examiner
wasn't available at the time) had my brother taken to Purviance Funeral home in Wakefield, Virginia where the
medical examiner David Weinstein who specializes in Podiatry (FEET) looked my brother over and wrote down the witness
statement on the report at the funeral home. The then funeral home owner's son Samuel Purviance(who embalmed
Alan said the medical examiner ordered the him to embalm Alan and then he said the medical examiner had this
authority. I
have this on a legal tape recorded conversation between my mother and Samuel Purviance. The Medical Examiner only
has this authority, if the deceased has a communicable disease or was to be transported by flight or rail or
to cross state lines and none of these applied to Alan and they knew this. Very early the next morning on 11/25/1984
my parents came to identify my brother's body at Purviance Funeral Home and to have him transported to Woods Funeral home
that we were using in the Hampton, Va. Woods Funeral Home told us he was already embalmed, but at the time
they never bothered to mention that the other funeral home embalmed him illegally. My parents never had to deal with
this (death) before so they had no idea what was legal and what wasn't. They were in shock. Woods Funeral
home gave me a copy of the reciept from Purviance funeral for care and embalming the body. The Chief Medical Examiner
told me from her notes that the medical examiner called her on 11/26/2005 to tell her he had a body. When
she called the sheriff's office and spoke to Deputy Harold Brown the same day to see about an autopsy, the Deputy
told her my brother had already been embalmed and was awaiting the funeral the next day on 11/27/1984 so then she did
not pursue the autopsy. The Father also named Samuel Purviance told my parents when his son
was not around that he was sick and tired of Surry County Sheriff's Department dumping bodies on them and they did what
they were told to do. And that there was alot of horse playing going on that day BUT SOMEONE ELSE PULLED THE
TRIGGER. I went to see Samuel Purviance(Father and Son) last year March 2005.
The father said he didn't remember saying that and the son said the same thing. The Medical Examiner has authority.
I called him out on that and he backed down. I think he got scared. He sent me a letter stating that he had no
embalming records which are required to be kept. He only had instructions from my parents to take the body to a Richmond
funeral home. My brother went to a Hampton Funeral Home. He is a liar. I called the funeral home 5 months
before this and they told me they only had a copy of the death certificate in their file.
I believe my brother was shot by a drunk so-called
friend who was holding the gun swaying it back and forth ( he did that to my sister's husband too before) and the
gun shot my brother in the head. Captain Wingfield's wife Jean ran the Cabin Point Grocers store in front
of where they were hunting and she admitted that they had stopped and bought alcohol at Cabin Point Grocers and
were drinking that day. In 1984 the legal drinking age was 19. My brother was 18 and the other guy that I believed
shot him was 17. Jean Wingfield also called the accident into the Sheriff's office that day. (Coincidental)
The family of the boy were very good friends with Captain Wingfield(Surry County, VA. Sheriff) (In fact
Captain Wingfield gave them permission to hunt on that land) I also believe Captain Wingfield was hunting with them that day,
not just the investigating officer like they said. They made sure my brother had no autopsy and was embalmed within 5 hours
after his death. These deeds were done before my parents even knew he was dead. My parents never asked
to see his face so no one that was not involved in this saw what his face actually looked like on that side. We just
saw the good side. We had an open casket.
The Sheriff's department did not fingerprint the witness' nor did they check for powder on
the wittness' hands. They only went on what the witness said. They did not investigate his death properly.
The Sheriff Department let the witness' come to tell my parents that my brother was dead. That was illegal. The Surry
County, Va Commonwealth's Attorney Mr. Poindexter is not willing to help me at all unless someone confesses or until the death
certificate reads Homicide, not accident. Surry County, Va won't help because they will get in trouble
for covering up this murder. I have already taken my case to the Hampton Commonwealth's Attorneys office
and they said it was not investigated the right way and also said Surry only went by wittness statements. They
said they couldn't do anything because it happened in Surry County, Va. (Jurisdiction you know) But I really would
like to go over Mr. Poindexter's head. The Attorney generals office said they don't do these investigations. So
my only alternative is to exhume and autopsy Alan.
Our Mission
I can go before the Circuit Court judge in Hampton City and get permission for Exhumation because that is where
he is buried. I had a wonderful generous Forensic Anthropologist offer his service to my brother at no charge. But now this
Anthropologist will not return my emails. So I guess he wasn't as wonderful as I thought. My
problem is I am not rich neither is my family. I don't know how I am going to pay for the exhumation. The cost is around $3,000.00
for Exhumation and around $3,000.00 for a forensic Anthropologist. My father has just been diagnosed
with esophagael cancer and he deserves to know the truth about his son before it's to late. The distance of the wound and
the size of the wound will tell the truth and can be told this way and this is all I would need to change his death certificate
from accident to homicide and begin to get justice for my brother. I am going to begin a fund raiser for my brother's Exhumation
and if anyone would like to donate even just a $1.00
to this cause, my address is listed below. If you can not donate we understand, we just ask you to pray we can receive
JUSTICE FOR ALAN RICH.
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