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Murder victim Barry Pendrey's family faces reliving a nightmare to keep killer in jail

Barry Pendrey's family and friends remain determined to keep his killer behind bars. Doing so means coping with the painful details of his murder every three years.

By Cody Lowe c [email protected] | 981-3425

Barry Pendrey is the only Roanoke deputy sheriff ever killed in the line of duty.

Roanoke jail inmate Kenny Edmonds crushed Pendrey's skull with an oxygen tank the night of Feb. 26, 1985 –– and those who were there can still describe the murder scene in details far too graphic for publication in a family newspaper.

"Everybody was affected by that thing," said Douglas Thompson, who was the Roanoke jail's shift supervisor at the time.

"I don't think it ever wore off." Not for the investigators, prosecutors, co-workers, family.

Pendrey "was a great guy. One of those who wanted to help everybody."

The William Fleming High School grad was just 30, but he had been a rescue squad volunteer since he was a teenager. He worked briefly as a dispatcher for the city before joining the jail staff in 1976.

With his rescue-squad training, it was natural that he would become a medic.

Which is how he came into contact with Edmonds.

This week, 26 years later, Edmonds' case will be considered again by the Virginia Parole Board. Sentenced to life in prison, his case predated the abolition of parole in Virginia by a decade.

Although he's been passed over six times before, Pendrey's family, friends and co-workers are once again making their voices heard.

"I dread reliving this nightmare every three years," Pendrey's widow, Suzanne Phillips, said last week. "But I made a promise that, as long as I have a breath in me, I would be Barry's voice and be at every hearing.

"If Mr. Edmonds is ever released, I am afraid this may happen to another family."
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I truly hope they're successful.  I can't imagine having to face that every three years.

I truly hope they're successful.  I can't imagine having to face that every three years.