Trio charged in Placko's killing

Authorities charged three Waynesboro residents Wednesday with conspiring to murder a Churchville man found last week in the James River.

Augusta County Sheriff’s deputies, working with Bedford County investigators, arrested Christopher Michael Dudley, 28, and his wife, Susan Jeannie Dudley, 24, and Andrew Clay Ottinger, 22, in the killing of Sean Peter Placko.

“There is the possibility that the charges we placed against them could be amended to a more serious charge,” said Maj. Ricky Gardner, chief deputy of the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office. “We haven’t ruled out the possibility of more people being charged.”

Gardner said a fisherman found Placko’s body March 7 floating under the Snowden Bridge in the James River, in a popular fishing spot near a hydro-electrical plant. Looking through a slight breeze on a sunny 60-degree day, the fisherman noticed the body partially submerged, he said.

Authorities pulled Placko, 42, from the water, about 80 miles from his home on Dry Branch Road, Gardner said.

Susan Dudley filed a missing persons report Feb. 23 with the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office, around the time authorities believe Placko was killed, said Beford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz.

“We suspect the homicide took place in the later part of [February] to early March,” Krantz said. “He was reported missing on Feb. 23, but he was last seen on Feb. 14. We have nothing conclusive from the medical examiner as to time of death.”

Augusta authorities believe the three suspects lived with Placko at 116 Dry Branch Road in January and February, county Sheriff Randy Fisher said in an interview with NBC29, a media partner of The News Virginian. Christopher Dudley was Placko’s nephew by marriage, the sheriff said.

“We believe they were there at the time of the disappearance,” Fisher said, adding that the Dudleys knew Placko for at least seven years.

The time, place and specifics of Placko’s death still are under investigation, he said.

“He was the kind of individual that was seen every day in the area that he lived,” Fisher said. “He basically just disappeared from the face of the earth. Nobody knew where he was.”

Deputies searched local drug treatment facilities after Susan Dudley filed the missing persons report, he said.

“There was some substance abuse by Sean Placko that gave family members concern,” Fisher said.

Placko’s relatives and friends remembered him as a quiet man who enjoyed fishing and bow hunting. Placko’s nephew, Corey O’Leary, 18, of Deerfield, said last week that his uncle would not have taken a long trip unannounced.

“He would have told somebody if he had gone fishing,” O’Leary said. “Plus, he would have brought his fishing poles, but they were out at the house.”

Gardner said investigators saw no indication Placko was there to fish.

“We’re ... trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together,” he said.

Gardner would comment neither on details of the case nor the nature of Placko’s death.

All three suspects are being held without bond at Blue Ridge Regional Jail in Bedford. A judge in 2004 sentenced Christopher Dudley to three years in prison on a malicious wounding conviction, according to court records. Dudley violated his probation in 2007, when officials could not locate him, court records state.

Since the beginning of the year, Ottinger was scheduled to appear in Augusta County General District Court five times, on traffic and public swearing charges, according to court records.

Bond hearings for the three suspects tentatively are set for 1:30 p.m. Monday in Bedford General District Court.

The Lynchburg News & Advance contributed to this report.