Keg Party Bust Turned Into Search-And-Rescue Operation
AP Graphic
ABINGDON, Va. – It was just before dawn Aug. 23 when the police helicopter skimmed the treeline of the North Fork of the Holston River in a search for the nearly 100 teens who scattered as police raided their beer and bonfire party.
What began shortly before midnight as a frolicking post-football-game keg-fest at 18358 North River Fork Road degenerated into a six-hour search-and-rescue mission because panicked minors aged 12 to 20 scrambled like kitchen cockroaches into hiding.
They dashed into the surrounding woods, hid in open fields of tall grass and splashed across a quick flowing bend in the river after the officers’ quiet, but sudden, arrival. Some teens even made it to the homes of nearby friends and family. Most hid in the fields and woods, while some were found in a rickety barn and a tractor shed on the property.
“There might be some kids there that had passed out,” recalled Virginia State Police helicopter pilot Sgt. John Ratliff, who scanned the area from above with a high-powered searchlight and infrared cameras that zeroed in on body heat.
Forecasts of 50-degree temperatures led lawmen to fear that some teens might become hypothermic while in the woods or on the riverbank.
The incident was confirmed last week by Abingdon police, Washington County Sheriff’s deputies and Virginia Alcohol and Beverage Control agents who charged nearly two dozen minors aged 14 to 20 with underage possession of alcohol. The single 12-year-old found at the party had not been drinking any of the wine coolers, malt liquor or beer there.
Officers also discovered a beer keg with a missing registration tag. Virginia law requires stores to affix to the aluminum barrel a tag citing the name of the buyer, when it was bought, and the address where the keg will be used. Removing the tag is a crime.
Washington County Sheriff’s 1st Sgt. Greg Hogston noted that the buyer, once tracked down by ABC agents, could face multiple counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor – one count for each minor charged with underage drinking.
Most partygoers were Abingdon High students, while others were graduates now enrolled at East Tennessee State University, the University of Virginia and even some Kentucky schools, officials said.
Neighbors and law enforcement said the North Fork River Road home that hosted the party is an unoccupied rental house recently bought by Dr. James A. Mann, who was not at the party. He could not be reached for comment Friday or Saturday at his Abingdon home or business office.
Police did not say who hosted the party, though it could have been teens whose names are being withheld because they are juveniles.
For weeks, rumors circulated through Abingdon High School that some students were planning to celebrate their football team’s season opener against John S. Battle High.
Abingdon High Principal Jeff Noe did not return a call for comment Friday on whether school officials had heard the rumors beforehand or were they made aware of the raid.
Decibel-shattering music tipped off neighbors, who, fearing reprisals by partygoers, requested anonymity.
“They were just loud, hootin’ and hollerin’ and carrying on,” one neighbor said.
Police also heard of the party as it was under way.
“We had received an anonymous ... complaint by someone who had been driving by about a big party with a car by the side of the road with its doors open and stereo on and there were people running around,” Hogston said. “Sure enough, there were people running around and there was music, and it was blaring.”
The Abingdon Falcons trounced John Battle 48-7 earlier that night, so there was plenty to cheer before police arrived.
First came the unmarked police cars. No alarms were raised as the plain-clothed agents mingled in with the crowd. Only after the marked cars pulled into the gravel driveway did a boy standing on the porch scream that police were there and for everyone to run.
One surprised teen mistook an ABC agent for a fellow partier, grabbed the agent by the arm and tried to drag him into the woods, all the while screaming that they had to escape the police.
“The agent just looked at him and said ‘Boy, don’t you know who I am? I’m ABC. Now, why don’t you just sit on down and rest for a minute,’ ” said Hogston, the Washington County Sheriff’s sergeant.
For the next six hours, police waved flashlights into barns, over field grass and around trees in search of teens. Some appeared so drunk that, officers recalled, friends grabbed each of their arms and dragged them into the woods.
Soon, helicopter pilot Ratliff got the call to look for stragglers.
For nearly two hours, he discerned the telltale heat signatures of cows and groundhogs from drunken teens, and then guided officers on the ground to their mark.
Recalled Hogston: “They [the helicopter crew] were saying ‘take 20 feet to your right, take 10 steps to your left ... and we were stepping on them and couldn’t see them because the grass was so high.”
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Reader Reactions
I think it’s a fair point to make that the people laughing this one off are making comments on an article which both makes light of the situation and, apparently, exaggerates details for added emphasis. Maybe you ought to jump on the BHC as well.
And while it is true that in many cases kids doing horrendously stupid things get bailed out by lawyer parents, it’s not as though this is a phenomenon limited to Abingdon or, indeed, the region. To point the finger at the town, the high school, the single group of parents is both self-righteous and ignorant. These kids are in want of discipline, surely, and they need to be held accountable, yes—but, again, you can say that of children across the country and world who are given a leg up by their middle class status.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to blame society only—or even just the parents—and let the kids go. That is a cop-out, and I’m no large fan of those. They knew what they were doing, and did it anyway.
To sunshineblue my heart goes out to you and thank you for taking the time to post your comment. I normally do not post to these articles, but I felt after reading all the comments that everyone was making such light of this situation and making it a joke and that really bothered me. I truly feel that if they saved one family from going through what you went through it was worth it and from the attention this article is getting…maybe this is exactly what BHC needed to do and Sheriff Newman it is definitely opening some eyes. I have not lost a family member to a drunk driver and hope and pray that I never do, but I have lost friends. The pain never goes away. Again, I am truly sorry for the loss of your brother and mother and thank you for your response. It may just make these kids think twice.
As a mom, a former party goer, and as a sister that her big brother was killed coming home from a party like this one I am appauled by some of the comments that were left on this site. Parents…get a clue…I never thought it would happen to our family either but guess what it did. My brother was killed 18 years ago and the pain and heartache of that death still is as strong as it was that night at 3 am when the police knocked on our door. My brother was a popular, good looking football player that all the girls wanted…he had a good life ahead of him and he lost it all that night. What is so hard for me to forget is that I was at that party as well and I left before he did because my curfew was before his. When I told my brother goodbye that night he told me to be careful…that was his last words to me. We partied for years just like these kids..someone would get a keg, we go into a big field and throw down…people would get drunk, they would get sick, they would have unprotected sex with partners that normally wouldnt because when you have your beer googles on everyone looks good. Sometimes we would get caught and have to run, sometimes we were just lucky, sometimes parents would catch us and back then they could bust out bottoms and drag us home. Sometimes lives were changed because of parties like this one. I remember a girl being so drunk that she had unprotected sex in a field and ended up pregnant. I have been there and done that but people looking back now God was with me or I would be dead like my brother. It took me losing him to see how STUPID I was.
I can not believe that any parent would willingly let your kids go to a party knowing what is going on whether you are drinking or not. I commend the ones that were the Designated Drivers that is great but what happens when you meet a car that is not driven by a “DD” It can happen to you!!
Alcohol is a drug and it is addicting..if you dont think that it is your crazy. How do you think that people become alcoholics they start with a few beers. I went to school with friends that use to binge drink at these parties and some of them are the ones that I see now not holding down a job and have kidney or liver failure.
I hope that the parents of the attendess of these parties never have to go through what my family has. My mother passes away a few years back with a broken heart she never got over the death of my brother. As one of the party goers I hope that you never have to bury one of your friends because it will change your life forever. Sober or not death is final dont think that it won’t happen to you because it can.
To the kids that did go to the party and not drink that is great but you need to think of the potential situation that you are placing yourself in. Things happen…accidents happen…and they can happen to you. There are alot of consequences to drinking I just hope that these kids are ready to accept them if you want to act like adult then you need to be treated like one. Parents don’t make excuses for your children hold them responsible. Sherrif Newman,Washington Co Sherrifs Office, Abingdon Police Dept, ABC keep up the good work.
Maybe the town should look into putting a teen center in to give these kids somewhere to go besides parting. I remember the biggest reason we did it all the time was because we had nothing else to do. Just a thought!
To Ruthimac big assumption that my child was not at this party. I never said that. I said in talking to parents that had kids at this party and thought they this was their first time…were more or less in denial. That must be where you thought my child wasn’t in attendance. But being in attendance and facing consquences for thier actions is a different story. I was young once too and realize that children make mistakes. Mine make them everyday. I am very proud of you for being there and not drinking, my child also did not drink that night. And you stating that their was “absolutely no hard liquor.“ There were 40-50 kids their by your own statement and you know that there was no hard liquor there. Were you with all 40-50 kids at all times to make sure they weren’t drinking hard liquor. These parties go on in Abingdon all the time and are usually looked over. I hope and pray it does not take one of your friends losing their lives driving home from a quaint gathering like this to make you realize that it is serious. Just because it has gone on for years does not make it right and does not mean that parents don’t want to try to protect their kids. You’ll understand one day. You just shouldn’t criticize the Sheriff’s Department for doing their job. Or the Bristol Herald Courier who reported the incident. This isn’t the first article they have done on alcohol recently. I think they are just trying to make the public more aware that it is a problem. I think if anyone would like to check the records of all local police departments I would say they gave out their fair share of tickets to race goers. The Sheriff’s Department handles numerous situations every night..not just one event. And what if one of these non-drinking children had been going home (after curfew) and got killed on the road by one of the attendees froms the race. Did you ever even think of that???
On that particular Thursday evening, the night before this party, my wife and I and 2 guests in our car were returning from dinner in Bristol at approx. 10PM. Upon clearing a rise on Jonesboro Rd we came across a sobriety check attended to by 3 Sherriff’s cars.
We stopped and as I was presenting my documents to the deputy, my wife asked, “What’s going on?“ to the deputy and he replied, “It’s Race Weekend, Ma’am.“
Point is, the Sherriff’s Dept. was vigilant that weekend.
I can’t beleive some of you are so quick to crticize through your own assumptions- Sherriff Newmann did the right thing in breaking up this party.
I can’t beleive some of the attitudes expressed here. Again, I do hope they are being dealt with severly, if for no other reason than those expressed
by ‘concernedmom’.
KUDOS to the Sherriff’s Department!!
For those who find this funny you probally don’t know anyone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol. Most of them started with only a few beers to wind down on weekends. You probally have never seen a sixteen year old who was so drunk he threw up and dies in his own vomit. I don’t want my grand children to end up as a statistic so I lecture them on right and wrong. It is not ok for them to have a few beers because this can lead to stronger and stronger drinks until it is too late. We as parents and grandparents need to get our heads out of the sand and realize that our kids make mistakes but we need to be ready to show them that it’s not ok to do it again.
I must agree with concernedmom, I am sure these “underage kids” don’t really see the outcome of this drinking, it is illegal. I guess some of them have not seen, the distraught parents that gets a call that your child was killed coming home from a “little quaint party”, or that your child passes out from consuming alcohol, all at the age of 14. The previous comments wrote for those that attended the party that evening, it somehow is noteable they still do not care that they are underage, and I commend the Washington County Police Dept and Sheriff Newman and I urge them to continue to monitor these “alcohol parties” in Abingdon. I know this has been going on for a long, long time and is overlooked because of the “elite residents” of that area. A word of wisdom to the “kids” that wrote they were at this party and it was not a big thing, think again, soon you will be of age (18) which could possibly send you directly to jail and in the future, is that how you would want your son or daughter grow up and act?
As an attendee of the party who did not drink, I would like to thank the concerned mother who has absolutely no trust in the ones of us who, surprise surprise, actually DID tell the truth! Who are you to judge? So your kids weren’t at the party? Great! But there were some of us there who didn’t participate, and therefore did not get in trouble. YOU should think twice before making such a hasty generalization.
One last thing. As a person in attendance of the party, you probably should not stick your neck out to clarify any details of the night. It would appear to be a speak-when-spoken-to situation, seeing as you are legally in the wrong, despite any apparent idealogical shortcomings of the Washington County Sherriff’s office. How does it go, anything you say can and will be used agaisnt you to collect hefty fines from your parents? That sounds about right.
This sounds like and poorly thought-out idea on all ends of the deal.
I completely agree with the comments stating that the politics/economics of the Food City race had a lot to do with the local police force flexing their muscles to a group of drunken adolecents.
On a different front, Concernedmom does not have a firm grasp of the reality of growing up in this area. She is lucky to have a kid living here, where they might drink a little. If you raise your children right, I believe that they will be prepared to make their own moral and legal decisions and take the consequences, and as a parent you can trust them to do so. This is far less true in a large city setting, where people are more pressured to partake of drugs that can and will really mess you up, possibly even for life. Hell, you probably won’t ever even see a meth addict in Abingdon.
Also, to the idea that these children/young adults were not ‘'in control,‘’ I strongly differ. That is a cop-out. You want to hold them responsible, and yet you also say that they were sadly misinformed? It’s one or the other.
Lastly, while the safety of children, even those involved involved in this illegal activity, is paramount, i seriously doubt it was the top concern of the police searching for them. This is on the same level as police claiming that safety is their top priority when pulling over drivers who are speeding. It all seems to be money and politics with the area’s finest (although the same holds true pretty much everywhere), but I guess the job needs doing.
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