VA VA - Christine Wright, 7, Dinwiddie, 12 Feb 1974

shadowangel said:

That is very interesting....I'd love to get my hands on one of those flyers that were given to residents detailing this guy's history.

I think we need to track this guy's whereabouts. While we're at it...Anyone know of a local news contact? It would be great to get Christine's story out there again, maybe jog someone's memory (or loosen their tongue after all this time).

As for some of the questions...Christine's mother taught 3rd grade. She was a former nun.
Christine was the oldest of four children. She had two brothers, each born a year apart after Christine, and a sister who was the youngest (6, 5, and 4 years old at the time of Christine's disappearance, respectively).
Christine was born in May of '66. Her parents had met and married in California the year prior.

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Funny, I joined WS's in July and I was just this morning looking for info about Christie to post here in hopes that someone knew something. I was born and raised in Colonial Heights and Chester, Virginia. When Christie dissappeared I was a child as well. I lived about a mile and a half from where she lived on Chestertown Rd. I lived in Hidden Valley Estates on Cresthill Rd. I was young yes, but I remember the search like it was yesterday. My parents were among those who searched if memory serves me correctly. My Dad to this day is very..ummm...tight lipped....about this case, and I don't know why. He refuses to discuss it. I guess that's what bothers me about it so badly all these years later. My Grandfather knew all these people. He was in real estate and he held and sold the option on the piece of land where those apartments were built. He was also VERY nosey. The apartments, to the best of my knowledge, were new when the Wright's moved there. My Grandfather had his own theories about what happened to Christie.
I don't know of any news contacts there, but if there's anything you want to know about the area I can probably help with that. I only recently left Virginia for good...AND...if someone manages to dig up something that needs to be checked out I'd be more than happy to make the five hour trip. I'm sure my Mom would be thrilled to see me and her Grandson. All of my family is there...in Colonial Heights, Petersburg, Dinwiddie, Prince George, Hopewell and Chester.

I just wanted to let you know I do plan to call Crimestoppers like you suggested. I'll let you know how that goes.

Also, the idea of getting the story out again is a great one. I still live in the general area, so I'll think about that and ask around, I might be able to stir up some interest. I don't know anyone specific, but I still may be able to generate some interest.

Another side note to these cases in general, where these children go missing with no apparent sign of struggle, like Christine did, and those Lyon girls in MD a couple of years later. . .

. . .these monsters, that's what I believe these perpetrators are, can apparently perfect their methods for getting children to trust them, or to go quietly for a minute or two, which is all the time they need. . . A friend of mines daughter-in-law, I won't mention her name because it's not relative to the case and to protect her privacy, this woman is 28 now. When she was 7 years old she was sleeping at night and her bedroom window was open. It was summer time and the whole family was asleep, there ws one sibling, a brother, asleep in his bedroom. Anyway, a man came in her window and abducted her. He told her that he was a fireman, that the house was on fire, and that her parents and brother were all safely outside and that he was going to take her to them. All this to keep her quiet and prevent her questioning or perhaps struggling. . . Subsequently, he took her off to a wooded area and raped her and left her for dead in the woods. Amazingly, the child survived and wandered through the woods until she came to a road and was found by someone. She sent several weeks in the hospital. I don't know many details, as far as how long she was in the woods or even if the man was caught but I don't think he was. . . naturally, it's not something she's going to just blurt out and talk about, she's in therapy now by the way, I've only heard about it from her husband and mother-in-law who is my friend. . . .the rason I mention it is I was amazed when I learned of that story to realize how easy it can be for these maniacs to trick a child. I had all those talks with my daughters about strangers and non strangers and told them to yell and make a scene and say "your aren;t my father, or mother" or "I don't know you". I covered everything I could think of, trying to make them aware of scenarios a kidnapper might use. It's a wonder my daughters weren't scared to death. But when you really think about it. How many children, that young, 6 or 7, if awakened in the middle of the night by someone claiming to be a fireman (I don't know if he had any props or fireman's garb) and telling them the house was on fire so they were going out the window, wouldn't be fooled for a few minutes, which is all these monsters need?most children would be tricked. It's chilling to think how much thought goes into some of their methods for abducting children and getting away with it. Absolutely chilling. I'm so glad this little girl miraculously survived. She's a lovely young woman.

A person of interest in the case of the Missing Lyon Sisters (Wheaton, Maryland 25 March 1975) was a guy named Fred Howard Coffey, Jr.

Fred was born in 1945 and in February of 1974 he was in the Navy, stationed in Norfolk, VA. He is currently incarcerated for life in Pender Prison, North Carolina for the abduction and murder of a little girl, Amanda Ray (10 years old) in Charlotte, NC in 1979.

Sometime in 1974, Fred picked up the 13 year old, daughter of a fellow Navy man at a convienience store. He drove her to Virginia Beach where he raped her. Civilian authorities dealt with the crime and when his (third) enlistment ended in September 1974, he was not allowed to re-enlist, but was put out of the Navy with an Honorable Discharge.

By April 1975, Mr. Coffey was working for VITRO Laboratories, a defense contractor, in Wheaton, Maryland. During his time there, several young girls went missing in Maryland and nearby Pennsylvania.

In July 1975, A young girl named Kathy Beatty (age 14) was abducted, sexually assulted, badly beaten and left for dead in a field, near a stream of water. When the newspaper stated that she was still alive and in the hospital, Fred Coffey suddenly left town without notifying his employer. Later, after news papers reported that Kathy had died after 12 days in a coma, Fred wrote to VITRO and requested his pay up through the end of the month be mailed to him. He stated that he left town because his daughter and wife had been in a traffic accident out of state. This was a lie that he was to use later in another similar incidence.

Fred Coffey returned to the Virginia Beach, VA area and by October 1975 was arrested there for "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" with a 15 year old girl. By the end of the year, he was in North Carolina enlisting in the NC National Guard.

In 1986, Coffey was arrested, charged and convicted of molesting three children. While in prison, he was charged with the 1979 murder of Amanda Ray. He is a strong suspect in the abduction and murder of two other children as well; Travis Shane King, age 8 of Bristol, VA (1986) and a little five year old girl, Neely Smith in Charlotte, NC in 1982.

So, here was a child molester and child murderer, living in Virginia in 1974. But is there any known connection between Fred Coffey and the Wright family or anyone in that area?

I could only guess that, before the internet age, most people felt that "something like this doesn't happen here. Not in our town". I don't think people realized how wide-spread and frequent child murders were, and seemingly always have been. The attitude could easily have been to ignore the truth and pretend it didn't exist. For some people, denial is the only defense available to them.

Thanks, Carrie, for stepping forward and contacting Crimestoppers.

Welcome, Shutterfly, your input and offer to help is greatly appreciated.

Richard-I thought of Coffey when I read of Christine's murder. This certainly seems to be someone who knew what they were doing. Does anyone know what the police department was like at that time? The size of the department? Were they experienced to any degree in investigating crimes such as this?
I worry that evidence could have been overlooked...If the the first impression that everyone had was that she simply walked away from the apartment, would a thorough search of the scene have been conducted?
Fingerprints...Shoe prints...Hair and fiber (both at the scene and on Christine)...
I'm going to try to contact someone with the local LE and see if they are willing to shed any light on the investigation and any developments in the meantime.

That's the primary reason for the media contact question. Perhaps renewed interest in the case could get LE to reexamine the evidence. The answer could be as simple as running prints or checking DNA.

I do have a question for anyone familiar with the area...How remote was the area where she was found? It was indicated at the time that she must have been placed into the water near where she was found, due to the stream being debris-filled further upstream. If she were in the water soon after she was taken, is there any reason to believe she should have been located earlier? (In other words, is the area so remote that only someone visiting the stream would have found her).

shadow...White Oak Creek (the dump site) isn't on a "main" road, nor is it "right off" off a main road. Whoever dumped that child there knew Dinwiddie County extremely well. And the dump site is at least 30 miles or so from Christie's apartment. Back then, there was NOTHING there for miles. Assuming this happened at night, you'd NEVER get there in the dark unless you knew that area like the back of your hand. I'm trying to get you a photo of the area where she was found that you can make out....I'll post it here for ya.
If you call LE they're probably going to go "who?" You need to talk to the retired cops, the old timers. I'm trying to get some numbers from family. I'm related to most of them.
Chester was a super small community back then but Chester always had virtually no crime rate and the police force was, and remains to this day a good one. I don't believe that someone "happened" to run across this child..just don't buy it...not there. Chester shut down at dark back in those days and these apartments aren't on a major road. I think back then the road dead ended at the apartments. I've got the old plot maps somewhere of my Grandfather's which will show exactly what was there...trying to locate those as well for ya.

Okay, here's the route from crime scene to dump site..it's actually about 22 miles.

Pictured are the apartments where Christie lived on Chestertowne Rd, in Chester Va.
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...689040553038&phscl=1.60974038601786&encType=1

Much of the remainder of what's seen in this photo, besides the apartments, was not there in 1974

For some reason I cant veiw the apartments.I am thinking of going there and doing some research. Any body want to offer up ideas on things to check? I want to get all the local news reports.

Soulmagent said:

For some reason I cant veiw the apartments.I am thinking of going there and doing some research. Any body want to offer up ideas on things to check? I want to get all the local news reports.

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It takes forever and a day to load soulma......I'm trying it now and if I can't get it up I'll see if I can fix it.

ETA: OR...it's because you might have to have VirtualEarth to pull it up. I hate the internet!!! I'm still trying to figure out how to get this piece of junk to do a screen shot.

Let's try this. This is Dewitt County. This is where White Oak Creek is located. This is a street map only because in an aerial you can't see the creek. White Oak Creek dumps into Stoney Creek on the southern end. It passes Coleman Lake on the north side and then dead ends. It only intersects three roads...White Oak Rd, Hills Drive, and Coleman Lake Road. If you overlay this map with aerial after you pull it up, you can see that even today this is in the middle of nowhere. To the best of my knowledge, the only one of the three intersecting roads to contain an actual bridge, is White Oak Rd...and that IS where it's the deepest. We used to fish there when I was a kid.
It's been said that Christie was found 100 yards downstream of "the bridge" so it has to be the bridge on White Oak Rd I would imagine. No one got down here by "accident" in the middle of the night. When you get out of your car down there you can't see your hand in front of your face. And no one got here that wasn't familiar with the area.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=D...de=37.1108&longitude=-77.68615&geocode=STREET

Let's try this again....apartments. You have to overlay this one with aerial as well. Top, right corner of the screen. The star is not on Chestertowne Rd. Chestertowne Rd is the next one to the left of the star.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=C...longitude=-77.44755&geocode=STREET#a/maps/l::[12200-12299]+Chestertowne+Rd:Chester:VA:23831:US:37.35785:-77.44755:street:/m::15:37.356399:-77.449382:0::/io:0:::::f:EN:M:/e

I don't know why the link is showing out from under it's "skirt"

I noticed there is a railroad very close to the area...Do these same tracks go anywhere near where Christine was found?

Is it possible that the killer dumped Christine from the bridge that is mentioned?

Shutterfly said:

<snipped> If you call LE they're probably going to go "who?" You need to talk to the retired cops, the old timers. I'm trying to get some numbers from family. I'm related to most of them.

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Thanks for all the info on the location, Shutterfly.
My one hope with LE is the fact that the case is listed on their Crimestopper website. That leads me to believe that an investigator has Christine's casefile on his or her desk.
Being able to close out this case would be a "feather in the cap" of the investigators, not to mention the PR for the department. If they find out that there has been renewed public interest in Christine's case, we may be able to get some cooperation.

Richard-Do you have any information on Coffey's physical description during this timeframe (early 1974)?

Here's something I find a little odd. No information on this case at all??! I realize it was 34 years ago. I understand of course that Christie's parents are what, in their 60's perhaps? But she had three brothers and sisters whom I believe are all younger. I'm 39( Christie would be 41 now) and that would make them about my age or a little younger, and possibly with grown children. No one in that family is actively searching for the person who killed this child? There are sites everywhere for family members to post unsolved crimes against people they love. Many people create their own sites for that purpose. I started looking for stuff on this case the first time in 2005...nothing then, nothing now. I just don't get it. Other than the info that's right here on our forum, there doesn't seem to BE any info about Christie....how sad....and strange.

Shutterfly said:

Here's something I find a little odd. No information on this case at all??! I realize it was 34 years ago. I understand of course that Christie's parents are what, in their 60's perhaps? But she had three brothers and sisters whom I believe are all younger. I'm 39( Christie would be 41 now) and that would make them about my age or a little younger, and possibly with grown children. No one in that family is actively searching for the person who killed this child? There are sites everywhere for family members to post unsolved crimes against people they love. Many people create their own sites for that purpose. I started looking for stuff on this case the first time in 2005...nothing then, nothing now. I just don't get it. Other than the info that's right here on our forum, there doesn't seem to BE any info about Christie....how sad....and strange.

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It is interesting you mention this. I have spent hours and hours searching for stuff on this.I went to post the same thing this now and I have to log in an stuff disapears (including my Thank you to you for posting the maps!) I was looking for an article I had read that said Christina mom worked as a teacher in a private christian school. And one Christina's siblings was found staring out of the open door but was sent to bed as noone had noticed her missing yet.Thre where a few more details and it mentioned it was thought she opened the door herself. My frustration over not being able to find that has got me planning an outing so any details you could provide me about the area would be helpful.I live about an hour an a half from there. Thank you Shutterfly for posting those wonderful maps!!!:blowkiss::blowkiss::blowkiss::

As we've seen with other cases here, its possible the family has googled Christine's name and found exactly what we did...Nothing. Without connections to sites like this or some internet savvy as to setting up a site, they may not have known what to do.
Its also possible that, due to the familys' faith, they've decided not to pursue Christine's murder. If the parents never really discussed it with the other children and moved on, Christine may simply be a dim memory for the other kids.
Christine was born a little over a month before me. She would be 42 now; the two boys, 41 and 40; her sister, 39.

I know when I started researching her case, the bit on Christine on the Chesterfield PD Crimestoppers site didn't even come up on a google search. Could it have been a very recent addition?

Shutterfly are the name of the apartments chesterfield apartments? if not what were they called and what are they now? Also they where catholic right? Wonder what church they attended? Anybody know where she is buried? What school did your friends- friend attend? Would he have any class pictures of her (that would be awsome).Did your grandfather talk to you mother about this and what where his veiws on it? Did he tell you not to go arround certian people or places ever ,that could be a clue as to what he thought. Sorry to slam you with questions ,but I realy think this can be solved because I realy do think she knew the person.

To Carrie- I did not mean for my Deliverance comparison to offend anyone, and I hope it didn't! I love VA and that area, but Dinwiddie just struck me as different.


Ok, I've just spent more than an hour trying to prove this poor little girl ever existed.

I cannot find her obituary anywhere. I've searched newspapers through my university library search. I don't understand why she isn't on the SS death index.

I started out by trying to locate her grave and haven't gotten very far on that. It is frustrating me. :waitasec:

I have searched the cemetery databases and come up with nothing.

OK, so we have a perp who stalks a little girl (it was in all probibility the man the dogs chased off earlier in the day/week), breaks into the home, kidnaps her, rapes her then dumps her alive (possibly unconscious), into the creek/river to drown. Was there ANY evidence? Fingerprints, footprints, semen, anything? Were there similar crimes within the vicinity? It is very rare for a sexual attacker to hit one time and never again.

zelmajane said:

To Carrie- I did not mean for my Deliverance comparison to offend anyone, and I hope it didn't! I love VA and that area, but Dinwiddie just struck me as different.


Ok, I've just spent more than an hour trying to prove this poor little girl ever existed.

I cannot find her obituary anywhere. I've searched newspapers through my university library search. I don't understand why she isn't on the SS death index.

I started out by trying to locate her grave and haven't gotten very far on that. It is frustrating me. :waitasec:

I have searched the cemetery databases and come up with nothing.

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Her obituary appeared in the Tuesday, April 23rd edition of the High Point (NC) Enterprise. Her funeral was held in Chester VA; she was interred at the Pleasant Cross Christian Church Cemetery in Asheboro, NC (where her father was from originally, I believe).
The cemetery is listed on FindAGrave.com, but only 9 of the graves there are listed. Several of those are of the Wright family.

One other thing I've considered in this...She disappeared the day before Valentine's Day. Don't know if that has any bearing, but its something to look at when looking for similar cases.