Keg Party Bust Turned Into Search-And-Rescue Operation

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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