Charges Recently Made in Buckingham/Appomattox County Ongoing Murder Case

Four people have been charged with first degree murder in connection to the human remains found in a vehicle destroyed by fire in Appomattox County.

Days before Halloween, the Appomattox Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into an abandoned, burned-out vehicle containing human remains. Officers have continued to search for answers for the victim’s family and friends by working to make arrests pertaining to this case and identifying and locating “persons of interest.” 

The Appomattox Sheriff’s Office received confirmation on Oct. 28 from the Office of the Medical Examiner in Roanoke that the human remains discovered in the vehicle on Oct. 21 were identified as Carlos L. Rose, 45, of Lynchburg. Sheriff Donald D. Simpson has declared this a homicide and that the victim’s cause of death was gunshot wounds. 

Simpson said that his thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Rose.

“He seemed to be a very well-liked person,” Simpson said. “Mr. Rose had a lot of friends in the Lynchburg community, and we certainly feel for them and we are trying our best to provide them with answers.”

The fire-destroyed vehicle was registered under Rose, whose family reported him missing to the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Appomattox Sheriff’s Office. The 2002 GMC Yukon was found near the intersection of Forbes Road and State Park Road in the Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest. 

 According to Simpson, this is a rare homicide case for the Appomattox area. 

“We have homicides on occasion,” Simpson said. “Generally, they’re domestic related and resolved quickly. One such as this is quite infrequent for Appomattox.” 

The first arrest made during the ongoing investigation was Artenna K. Horsley-Robey, 29, of Lynchburg. Robey was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder on Oct. 27 and is being held without bond at the Blue Ridge Regional Jail, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Other arrests were pending at the time. 

“Today’s arrest is the result of the collaborative efforts of over a dozen law enforcement officers working non-stop for nearly 1,000 hours over the past six days,” Simpson said in a news release Oct. 27. 

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Simpson said that his reaction to this case was to seek and provide answers to the victim’s family and hold the individuals responsible, accountable. According to Simpson, the Appomattox Sheriff’s Office is dedicated to finding answers and is working closely with their regional partners from Lynchburg, Campbell County, Bedford County and Amherst County to bring closure to this case.

“We will use all resources available to bring this case to justice,” Simpson said. 

This case became even more complex when Enrico A. Moss, 29, of Appomattox was also arrested with charges of first-degree murder of Rose. Moss is being held in the Baltimore City Jail in Maryland on this and other unrelated charges, according to the Appomattox Sheriff’s Office. 

According to Simpson, Robey and Moss’s first trials may be conducted electronically because of limits on the amount of people allowed into the courthouse. Simpson estimates that it will be a couple of months before Robey’s first preliminary hearing and before Moss will be seen in court in Appomattox.

“Mr. Moss, he’s actually got some federal charges, so he will be adjudicated on that likely before we will start our trial process here,” Simpson said. 

The Appomattox Sheriff’s Office also released a photo on Oct. 28 of “persons of interest” wanted for questioning in the homicide of Rose.  The photo came from the Madison Heights Walmart in the afternoon of Oct. 21. As of Nov. 3, both people have been identified but not located.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, one person in the photo was identified as Mik’Tavis Elonta N. Green, 21, of Prospect, and the other person was identified as Keyanta K. Robinson, 20, of Madison Heights. Both have been charged with first-degree murder of Rose. Robinson is also facing seven felony firearms and shooting charges in Amherst County, according to the Sheriff’s Office. 

Madison Repasky, freshman and criminal justice major, hopes that justice will be served and that the Lynchburg community, along with Rose’s friends and family, will be able to heal from what has happened. When she heard about the investigation, Repasky was surprised that the incident occurred so close to the Lynchburg area.

“As I get deeper into this major (criminal justice), I realize that anything could happen anywhere,” Repasky said. “It’s still shocking though that it happened so close.”

Simpson said that he and those in his profession process cases like this the best they can and that they certainly have empathy for victims and their families. 

“There was a victim in this,” Simpson said. “This man had a wife and child and brothers and mother, and those are the ones that truly suffer in events like this.

Mia Nelson is a News Reporter.