By Nate Delesline
Authorities on Friday arrested and charged Eric Dee Abshire in connection with the 2006 death of his wife, Justine Elizabeth Swartz Abshire, four years and one month after the 27-year-old Emerald Hill kindergarten teacher was found dead alongside a rural Orange County road.
The Virginia State Police arrested Eric Abshire, 36, of Greene County, Friday afternoon in Culpeper County. VSP spokesman Corrine Geller declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding his arrest, including what he was doing in Culpeper County. Geller said only that he was taken into custody without incident.
The arrest came immediately after an Orange County special grand jury convened Friday and handed up the indictments.
Eric Abshire is being held without bond at the Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange. Geller said the jail does not release booking photos and the VSP does not take them.
“The investigation immediately revealed possible foul play, and State Police special agents were called in to investigate,” the VSP said in a statement. “Further investigative efforts lead agents to believe the accident scene was staged and the case was subsequently deemed a homicide.”
Case background
In the early morning hours of Nov. 3, 2006, State Trooper B.J. Hobbs was dispatched to the scene of a reported fatal hit-and-run on Taylorsville Road in Orange County, about eight-tenths of a mile west of Route 657.
In March 2008, the VSP had publicly acknowledged that Justine Abshire was more likely a murder victim than an accident victim.
Her death garnered national attention in July 2008 when ABC’s “Primetime Crime” TV program broadcast a special on the case, including the revelation that the injuries she sustained weren’t consistent with a hit-and-run accident.
“We still are 100 percent confident that her case will be solved,” Justine’s father, Stephen Abshire, told the Star-Exponent in 2008. “We think we know what happened, but the Virginia State Police have a reputation for being both good and very quiet, so I really don’t know.”
The Swartz family could not be reached for further comment on the case Friday night. But in the weeks, months and years after the crime, they’ve asserted that Eric Abshire was responsible for Justine’s death.
An extensive story published by The Hook in Charlottesville last month also reveals that the Swartz family had filed a $5 million civil lawsuit accusing Eric Abshire, his brother Jesse Abshire, the mother of Eric’s two children, his cousin and six unnamed co-conspirators in Justine’s death. That civil case is pending.
Eric Abshire has maintained that his wife had jumped in her car after an argument and left their house for a drive on the night of her death. Around 1:20 a.m., he claims, Justine called him to pick her up, saying her car had broken down. When he got to the scene on his motorcycle, Eric Abshire said, his wife’s body was lying alongside the road.
“The four individuals named remain at the center of a criminal investigation,” The Hook reported, “Because they conspired with the unnamed individuals that caused the death of Justine Abshire via ‘unlawful actions.’”
About Justine
Profiles from justicefromjustice.com and a Facebook page devoted to the same goal describe Justine Abshire as a gentle soul, a person enthusiastic about her life and the future.
She was born Feb. 6, 1979, in Minneapolis and lived there until she was 11; she then moved to Germantown, Tenn., and the Charlottesville area. She attended James Madison University and was working on her master’s degree at the University of Virginia.
An avid reader and animal lover, Justine Abshire regularly volunteered at animal rescue organizations. She married Eric Abshire in May 2006.
Besides her father, Justine is also survived by her mother, Heidi Swartz, her sister, Lauren and two stepdaughters.
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