State Police plan to charge a Dunmore man with first-degree murder for allegedly killing his grandparents, one of whom was a former State Police trooper.
Relatives asked police to check on Timothy D. McDaniels, 61, and Shawn Marie McDaniels, 59, after they hadn't been heard from for several days. A State Police trooper found them shot to death in their Marlinton home on Friday.
In a news release Monday, State Police said they would charge the couple's 22-year-old grandson, Aaron J. Bussard, with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of grand larceny. Bussard was captured by police in Virginia over the weekend, and will have to be extradited to West Virginia.
Originally, police had called Bussard a person of interest and said they had obtained an arrest warrant for him for allegedly stealing the McDaniels' Honda Pilot.
Around 8:30 a.m. Saturday, the Alleghany County Sheriff's Department found Bussard and took him into custody near Clifton Forge, Virginia. The Associated Press reported he was captured after a 2 1/2 hour standoff with law enforcement that ended when officials convinced him to toss his guns out of his car before hitting him with a stun gun and taking him into custody.
Timothy McDaniels, was a West Virginia State Police trooper from 1978 to 1991. State Police Lt. Michael Baylous said McDaniels received the West Virginia State Police's version of the Purple Heart after he was shot in the shoulder while responding to a domestic call.
"Trooper and Mrs. McDaniels' family remain in our thoughts and prayers as they deal with this senseless tragedy," Baylous said in the news release.