Brenda Lee Dennis, 54, of Ivydale, West Virginia, was found fatally shot inside a residence on the 6000 block of Big Otter Highway in Clay County. Family members raised the alarm when they could not reach her; a man who discovered the victims stopped West Virginia State Police troopers and directed them to the home on the evening of April 3, 2025. Inside, investigators found Dennis and Richard Bishop of Maysel dead from gunshot wounds. Bishop had been shot three times; Dennis suffered a single gunshot wound.

Multiple 9 mm shell casings were recovered at the scene. Some accounts and Dennis’s obituary give April 1 as the date of death, suggesting the shooting may have occurred before the April 3 discovery. Attention centered on Michael Wayne Adkins of Duck after a witness described him as obsessed with Dennis and hostile toward Bishop, and after Dennis’s son reported Adkins had previously said he intended to kill Bishop. Adkins was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and held without bond.

Did anyone in the Ivydale or Maysel area know Brenda, Richard, or Michael and see them together around the end of March 2025?