The Shadow
SELMA — The Alleghany County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a “suspicious” death in Selma.
According to Alleghany County Sheriff Kevin Hall, the body of Joe Ray Rumfelt, 71, of 1412 Donovan St., was found in his residence Tuesday night. Rumfelt lived alone.
The cause of death has not been determined. An autopsy was scheduled for this morning at the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Roanoke.
Hall said his office was called to the scene at approximately 8:20 Tuesday night. Officers were still processing the scene at 2:30 this morning.
“We’re still trying to process the scene,” said Hall in an telephone interview.
Officers were working to uncover any weapon that may have been involved in the incident.
“I’d like to be able to tell you it’s a stabbing or a gunshot, but there’s questions there,” Hall said. “We probably won’t know until we get to the medical examiner’s office.”
The sheriff said Rumfelt’s death will be treated as suspicious until authorities get more answers during the course of their investigation.
“There’s a lot we don’t know, but we’re treating it as suspicious for now just to be sure. We’re working the scene and looking for any sort of weapon, if one was used, but there’s a lot here to go through,” Hall said.
