Neighbors say site of stabbing carries history

A weekend stabbing in a field near Crimora was the latest black mark on a property where teens frequently trespass, party and vandalize farm equipment, farmers and neighbors said Wednesday.

“There’s just non-stop traffic in and out of there,” said Andy King, who lives in the 1700 block of Rockfish Road, where it intersects with Robert Turk Lane.

Early Saturday, a party in the field turned violent. Nathaniel Dofflemyer, 20, of Verona, stabbed Dustin P. Lauterback, 19, of Waynesboro, according to court records. Lauterback since has returned home.

That incident riled Larry Shiflett, who has farmed nearly 20 years on land he rents from J.B. Yount. Shiflett said he repeatedly has asked authorities to monitor for trespassers. He also speaks regularly with Sheriff Randy Fisher, who lives nearby and maintains some of Yount’s land.

“He’s known there was a problem down there,” Shiflett said.

Shiflett said he once tussled with two men after a near-collision between their trespassing truck and his farm combine. Assault charges against Shiflett and the others later were dropped. On another occasion, two men vandalized an irrigation pipe, he said.

“There is a problem,” Fisher said. “[But] I can’t be down there trying to catch people 24-hours a-day ... We’ve done everything short of gating off a state road.”

Fisher and his sons mow grass at Yount’s uninhabited house at the end of Robert Turk Lane, maintain property gates and watch for loose animals and deer hunters, he said.

Fisher declined to comment on Saturday’s party, but said he has made clear to his sons how they are to behave on the property: they must be safe when holding bonfires and, being underage, they are not allowed to drink.

The sheriff’s son Alex Fisher is listed in court records as a witness to the stabbing. He drove Lauterback, a longtime friend, to Augusta Medical Center in Fishersville, said Wilson Memorial High School student Coreena Coleman, 17, another witness and a friend of both teens.

“He was bleeding a lot,” Coleman said, calling the event “tragic.”

Teens were gathered around a bonfire when the fight broke out during which Lauterback was stabbed with a broken bottle, Coleman said.

“It was chaotic,” Coleman said.

She remained on the phone with 911 en route to the hospital.

“Alex definitely responded to the situation very smoothly,” Coleman said.

Lauterback was later flown to University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. Dofflemyer was arrested Sunday at his Verona home, said Capt. Dwight Wood of the sheriff’s office.

Authorities declined to identify people attending the party.

Deputies responded at about 1:30 a.m. to Robert Turk Lane for a report of a fight in a field, Wood said. Lauterback and Dofflemyer were not there and no one was charged, although there was some alcohol present, Wood said.

“Could there be any further charges? Yes, I would say that’s a possibility,” Wood said.

People drank alcohol at the party, but Alex Fisher did not partake, Coleman said.

Waynesboro police are investigating a hit-and-run that occurred a short time after the party broke up. Authorities say partygoers may have been involved in that incident.

The incident in the field led to Dofflemyer’s second run-in with authorities over the weekend.

Several hours earlier, Dofflemyer was charged with being drunk in public at a party in Verona, where more than a half-dozen others were charged with underage drinking.

Luke Bates, 19, who hosted that party and also was charged with underage drinking, said designated drivers had been chosen and the kids there were “just having a good time.”

Dofflemyer argued briefly with another man, but the party remained calm, Bates said.

Deputies broke up the gathering of more than 30 people shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, Wood said.