Wife’s body found by hunters in Virginia woods in 2017, cops say. Now, husband arrested

Seven years after hunters found a missing woman’s body in a shallow grave in the woods, her husband has been charged with murder, Virginia authorities announced.

Russell Wayne Layne, the 67-year-old husband of Emma Layne, was arrested Nov. 27, the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office said that same day.

“I’ve waited for this day,” her sister Shawna Compton Krohn wrote on Facebook after receiving news of the arrest.

Emma Layne was reported missing in June 2017 after she was last seen at the store she ran in Nathalie, Virginia, according to Halifax County deputies. Law enforcement began looking for her, but it wasn’t until a chance encounter five months later that her body was discovered.

In November 2017, hunters stumbled across her body in a “very shallow grave” in the woods, Maj. Tommy Spencer told WSLS.

The remains were identified a few months later, although they were always presumed to be hers, according to the Halifax County Sheriff Fred Clark.

Her family continued the pursuit for justice for years, calling on investigators to keep working the case.

“I miss Emma every single day. The world is not the same without my sister,” Wynona Compton Childress wrote on Facebook on the seventh anniversary of the discovery of Emma Layne’s body. “I miss her laugh and corny jokes. I miss her caring and loving kindness.”

Finally, Sgt. Jeff Burton gave them a call.

“After talking to Investigator Burton & Sheriff Clark, I don’t think it really sunk in,” Krohn said in her post. “I started thinking after we hung up that this is a dream & I’m gonna wake up.”

Russell Layne was served with a murder indictment and was booked in jail without bond, deputies said.

Halifax County is in south central Virginia.

This story was originally published November 29, 2024 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Wife’s body found by hunters in Virginia woods in 2017, cops say. Now, husband arrested."