On October 31, 2020, police and EMS responded to a home on Royal Drive in Pembroke after a man reported shortness of breath. First responders found 60-year-old Donald Eugene Collins with a gunshot wound to his abdomen and 64-year-old Doretta Faye Riddle Collins dead from an apparent gunshot wound elsewhere in the house. Donald Collins was airlifted to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The Giles County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the Virginia State Police, investigated the incident and obtained warrants charging Donald Eugene Collins with second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Authorities initially indicated there was no ongoing threat to the public after the event.

Doretta Collins, born September 17, 1956, in Pearisburg, was a registered nurse who most recently worked at Radford Health and Rehab and was active in Pembroke Christian Church and the Pembroke Women’s Club. Does anyone in the community have information about Doretta’s last days or the circumstances at the Royal Drive home?