Person Page - 7189

     Robert Charles Bohon was buried at Glade Creek Cemetery, Blue Ridge, Botetourt Co., Virginia.¹ He was born on September 3, 1961 at Roanoke, Virginia.^1,2 He died on December 31, 1979 at Roanoke, Virginia, at age 18.^1,3 He 18-year-old killed by elephant gun An 18-year-old Roanoke County man was shot and killed early Monday with what police called an elephant gun after he allegedly set his parents' house on fire and stole a pickup truck. The owner of the pickup, Earl Lee Crowder Jr. of 7348 Barrens Road Northwest, has been charged with murder. Crowder, a 31-year-old truck driver, is free on $5,000 bond pending arraignment Wednesday on the murder charge. Robert Charles Bohon, 7500 block of Deer Branch Road in the Woodlands subdivision, died of a gunshot wound to the back, authorities said. Bohon was killed shortly after midnight in front of a house in the 200 block of Knoll Road, a short distance from his home. Neighbors said Mr. and Mrs. Roy Scott, Bohon's mother and stepfather, were vacationing in Florida when a bizarre chain of events began Sunday night. A Roanoke woman who was with Bohon at his parents' house told police he became violent after drinking grain alcohol. She told Roanoke County sheriff's deputies that Bohon broke out a fireplace screen with a poker and then went on a destructive rampage in the kitchen. The woman told police she took Bohon's car keys and attempted to leave. Before she could drive away, he broke the windshield with his fist, sheriff's deputies said. Around 10 p.m., fire officials said. Bohon called to report that his parents' house was burning. Separate fires had apparently been set in a couch and chair in a den downstairs and in a bed upstairs. At first, firefighters thought there was someone inside. But when the blaze was brought under control, the house was found to be empty. Damage to the interior of the home was estimated at more than $15,000. Crowder, meanwhile, was sitting in his home on Barrens Road, two blocks away, when he heard a motor start shortly before 11 p.m. He told investigators he thought the noise came from the street until he looked outside and saw that his pickup, which had been parked on the carport with the keys in the ignition, was gone. Detective Capt. R. R. Henderson of the Sheriff's Department said Crowder's son thought he saw the pickup on nearby Knoll Road and told his father. Crowder took what was described as an elephant gun, a .458-magnum rifle with a shell four inches long, and went to retrieve the truck, authorities said. Crowder called shortly after midnight to say he had located his pickup and asked that a deputy meet him. Police said Bohon had apparently parked the pickup on Knoll Road and walked back to watch the fire. When he was recognized and told that an arson investigator wanted to talk to him, Bohon ran back to the truck. Police aren't sure what happened next. When the deputy arrived, he found the pickup and Crowder's car parked facing each other. Bohon's body was on the ground behind the truck. Crowder was arrested at the scene of the shooting. on January 1, 1980.⁴ He Robert Charles Bohon, age 18, of 7510 Deer Branch Rd., died Monday. Surviving are his mother and step-father, Nancy B. Scott and Roy Edward Scott; one brother, Michael Edward Scott, at home; two sisters, Mrs. Tracy J. McPheron, Rocky Mount, N. C; Ms. Hazel Terry Bohon, at home; maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Jenkins, Roanoke. on January 3, 1980.³