Investigators identify dead body found in Fayette County

KINCAID, W. Va. — Investigators with the state Chief Medical Examiner’s Office have positively identified the dead individual found in Fayette County.

Chance Thomas Plumley, 24, of Cabell County, had been missing from the Page area of Fayette County since November 11.

Thursday afternoon, just after 2 p.m., a hunter called 911 after finding a dead body on top of a mountain above Rt. 61 in a wooded location within the Kincaid area. According to Sheriff Steve Kessler, personnel and equipment had to be transported by ATV and UTV to reach the remote area.

Plumley’s body was taken down the mountain by fire department personnel and sent to Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an evaluation of a cause of death.

“Our hearts go out to the Plumley family for their tragic loss,” Sheriff Kessler said. “We all wish that we had been able to locate him much sooner, while he was still alive, but given the extremely rough and rugged terrain in this area we’re fortunate that we were able to locate him at all.”

Plumley was last seen on November 11 running up a hill into a wooded area above the Page Baptist Church and that his friends were unable to locate him afterward.

Bloodhounds from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene and tracked for some distance, but both indicated he had made his way back to Rt. 61, where the scent trail ended.

After several days in the Page-Kincaid area attempting to locate Plumley, with no one reporting to have any contact with him, investigators were skeptical of his chances of survival if he did not seek shelter.

When authorities found Plumley’s remains on Thursday, there was no indication of foul play in his death but no immediate known cause.

This incident remains under investigation by Officer Dave Hylton of the West Virginia Natural Resources Police Department and the Detective Bureau of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.

Anyone with any information concerning this investigation is asked to contact the Fayette County 911 Center at 304-574-3590 or Crime Stoppers at 304-255-7867.





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