GUILTY VA - Sally Rumsey, 50, Kinsale, 5 February 2010 *Arrest*

Authorities are continuing their search today in Westmoreland County for Sally Rumsey, a restaurant owner who disappeared Friday afternoon from her home near Oldhams.

Rumsey and her husband Steve Andersen own and operate Good Eats Cafe near Kinsale.

Andersen said in an e–mail sent last night to restaurant customers that he last saw Rumsey at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Andersen said Rumsey “returned from her vacation in Asia on Thursday, we did errands and storm prep together on Friday and were together here at home until I left at 4:30 to take the dogs for a walk in our woods. When I came back into the house at 6 p.m., she was not here.”

“It has now been 3 days since we have seen or heard from her and we are getting desperate,” Andersen said.

Westmoreland sheriff’s deputies and a Virginia State Police helicopter searched for Rumsey yesterday in the snow-covered woods near her and Andersen’s home on Kings Mill Road.

The search resumed today, said Sheriff’s Maj. John Hoover. Anyone with knowledge of Rumsey’s whereabouts can call the Sheriff’s Office at 804/493-8066.

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Police in Westmoreland County Tuesday night found a body believed to be that of Sally J. Rumsey, a 50-year old restaurateur who reportedly disappeared Friday from her home near Oldhams.

According to Westmoreland Sheriff's Major John Hoover, the body was found in the woods of the 50-acre property where Rumsey and her husband Stephen C.Andersen lived on Kings Mill Road.

Hoover said at 10 p.m. that the body had not been positively identified and was being taken to the State Medical Examiner in Richmond for autopsy.

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marlinz said:

This is interesting.. Look at the other recent incidents posted in today's online news. UMW is in Westmoreland County.

http://fredericksburg.com/News/Web/2010/022010/0210umw-giant

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The Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Office is seeking “any and all evidence related to murder” in the death of Sally Rumsey.

According to search warrants filed today in Westmoreland Circuit Court, police found Rumsey’s body Tuesday about 50 yards from her house on Kings Mill Road near Oldhams. She had been missing four days.

In searches conducted Tuesday night and Wednesday morning at the home of Rumsey and her husband Stephen C. Andersen, deputies seized bottles of wine and drugs, computer hard drives, a telephone bill, a handgun and other items.

For more details, read tomorrow’s Free Lance–Star.

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Search warrants filed in the Westmoreland County Circuit Court last week confirm that the death of a missing restaurant owner, whose body was discovered near her Kinsale home, is being investigated as a possible homicide.

On the afternoon of Feb. 9, former Good Eats CafŽ owner Sally Rumsey, 49, of Kinsale was found on her property after a two-day search, Sheriff C.O. Balderson of Westmoreland County Sheriff's office said last week.

Balderson said Sgt. Gary Horner of the Virginia State Police located Rumsey's body, which was partially hidden under the snow, after she was reported missing two days earlier.

Stephen Anderson, Rumsey's husband and co-owner of the restaurant, reported her missing on Feb. 7.

Rumsey had been missing since Feb. 5, according to an email sent by Anderson, following the filing of a missing persons report being filed.
"My condolences to family and friends involved," Balderson said. "As a sheriff, you hate to see any death in the family."

Balderson said the search teams were made up of approximately 30 individuals, several dogs and a helicopter on Monday.

Several miscellaneous items were recovered during a search on the property, including prescription drugs, electronic equipment and a .32-caliber handgun.
The assisting agencies were from the Westmoreland County Sheriff's Office, Virginia State Police, Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Department of Corrections and the Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association.

No charges have been filed and investigations are still ongoing, Balderson said, adding that he could not reveal the findings from the autopsy report at the present time.

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The lawsuit was filed in the case by by Sarah Thrift, Rumsey’s 28-year-old daughter from a previous marriage. The suit, which sought $10 million, also asked that the Kinsale area restaurant and other properties he and his late wife co-owned be distributed to Rumsey’s daughters.

The jury, which was unanimous in its verdict, awarded Thrift $6 million and her younger sister, Schuyler Andersen, 21, $2 million. Schuyler Andersen was not a party to the lawsuit and testified in her father’s behalf...

An additional problem for Andersen could come from Westmoreland County Commonwealth’s Attorney Julia Sichol, who could still prosecute him for the death. Sheriff’s investigator Fred Mitchell said the Rumsey death is still listed as an open case and investigators during the trial testified they disagreed with the ruling of suicide from the beginning of the case.

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A former Westmoreland County restaurateur is facing a first-degree murder charge in his wife’s death more than six years ago.

Stephen Carl Andersen, 64, of Hague was indicted by a multijurisdictional grand jury May 25 in the February 2010 death of Sally Rumsey...

An autopsy report said Rumsey froze to death. She also had high amounts of the sleep drug Ambien and alcohol in her system.

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