As investigators continue to probe a set of violent encounters that left two men dead on Powell Road near New Vienna on Friday, Highland County Sheriff Donnie Barrera said ballistics tests and autopsy reports will likely paint a clearer picture of what led to the death of a young man found in a wrecked vehicle there.
Currently, Barrera said investigators speculate that Tyler South, 21, Dayton, shot Jaydon Boggs, 18, also of Dayton, before breaking into a nearby home armed with a rifle, where he was shot in the chest by one of the armed occupants.
“It’ll be cleared up once we get the ballistics back on the weapons [South] had,” Barrera said.
According to the sheriff, authorities initially responded to the area after a 911 caller reported an accident at Powell Road and SR 73 early Friday morning.
When emergency responders arrived, they found Boggs’ body in the driver seat of a wrecked vehicle on Powell Road with a gunshot wound to the back of his head, Barrera said.
According to Barrera, it appears as though Boggs was shot while he was in the vehicle, and it is believed that South and Boggs were the only people in the car at the time of the incident.
Some time later, South broke into a nearby home armed with a rifle, Barrera said. According to the sheriff, South left a pistol outside the home.
One of the two occupants of the home, both of whom were armed, told South to leave, according to Barrera, and when South refused, one of the occupants shot him in the chest.
South was pronounced dead at the scene, Barrera said.
The sheriff said he does not anticipate that charges will be filed against the occupants of the home.
As for the moments leading up to Boggs’ death, Barrera said that although investigators have suspicions, they are still “piecing together the puzzle.”
“At this point, we’re still looking into it,” he said.
On Friday, Barrera said that the vehicle in which Boggs was found had been observed by a sheriff’s deputy in Lynchburg earlier that morning, and it appeared to be involved in suspicious activity.
Barrera said South and Boggs are believed to have been involved in drug abuse of some kind before the incident.
The Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation is evaluating evidence in the case, Barrera said.
Contacted Monday, a BCII spokesperson said the bureau cannot comment on pending investigations.
Reach David Wright at 937-402-2570, or on Twitter @DavidWrighter.
