MURDER VICTIM WAS FLINN'S NEPHEW - Nineteen-Year-Old Girl's Infant Survives

(04/04/2005)
An Elizabeth man, Roger Flinn, 45, has been arrested for the shooting of his nephew 21-year old Russell Eastham and Eastham's live-in girlfriend 19-year old Sylvia Fittro.

An eyewitness allegedly saw Flinn knock down a door and the shoot the couple, sparing a ten-month-old child.

State Police said this is the first murder case in Wirt County in many years.

Eastham apparently struggled after he was shot, leaving a trail of blood down Route 14 in Wirt County before he collapsed in a ditch. A driver spotted his body early Friday morning.

Flinn has been arraigned in both Wirt and Wood County Magistrate Courts, and is currently being held in North Central Regional Jail without bond.

He has been charged with two counts of first degree murder.

Authorities said the two victims were dead about five or six hours, with the crying infant beside its mother.

A 200-yard blood trail connected Eastham's body to a residence, which was located a few miles from the Roane County line between Lucille and Palestine, not far from the home place of Jessica Lynch.