RESIDENTS DEFEND CAMPBELLS CREEK

Opinions abound along Campbells Creek Drive about the recent fatal shooting
outside a neighborhood convenience store.

Police investigating two shootings seem to be leaning heavily on the
suspicions of area residents who blame drugs for the killings.

But the family of Jeanie Patton, who was killed about 10 p.m. Thursday
after pumping gas into her car at the Campbells Creek Speedway, doubts the
drug theory.

"I'm not knocking the police department, but they're telling people what
they want to hear," said Larry Patton, Jeanie Patton's father. "I never saw
Jeanie use drugs, and I never saw her boyfriend [Marty Walker] use drugs.
But I'm not saying that they didn't."

Longtime residents of Campbells Creek, a narrow mountain hollow in Eastern
Kanawha County, were worried Wednesday that their community is being
portrayed as a bad place.

"I don't know if it's worse in this area than in any others. There's good
people here," said one resident and business owner who asked not to be
identified. "I don't deal in drugs. You've got to deal in drugs to know
drug people."

Down the road at Peggy's Dairy Treat, Kelli Schoolcraft said she's not sure
there is as much of a drug problem as has been reported.

"If there is [a problem], I don't see it," she said. "I think a lot of
stuff gets blown out of proportion."

Although no suspects have been identified in the deaths of Patton and Okey
Meadows Jr., Kanawha County sheriff's investigators said Wednesday they
have talked with at least one person allegedly linking the shootings to
cocaine use.

"You hear a lot of stuff," Schoolcraft said. "I really don't like to hear
it because it's only hearsay. They're making Campbells Creek sound worse
than it is."

"Everybody up there is torn up, scared about this," Patton said of the
Campbells Creek area. "But where isn't a place in this country that isn't a
'drug area'? If I moved to Campbells Creek, and something happened to my
family, they're going to say it's drug-related."

Carl Terry, a 58-year resident of Campbells Creek, said he, too, was
surprised that residents are alleging a serious drug problem. He said he
guessed that there are several users and some dealers in the area, but "I
don't see it."