Town note
Keeling's area code is 434.
about 0:07:03Spoilers are covered until your reading preferences load.
FILE 735 / 17 September 2026 / 183 MIN / full
It's in southern Virginia, way southern Virginia, right in the central part... right in the meat of Virginia. This is in Pittsylvania County. about 0:06:09
Keeling's area code is 434.
about 0:07:03The town was named for James C. Keeling, who owned a store on the site and was the first postmaster.
about 0:07:07James C. Keeling was the son of Thomas and Margaret Keeling, who were born in Ireland; the family became prominent in Danville, about 20 minutes away.
about 0:07:42On 28 August 2019 three people were found shot to death in a house on Keeling Drive; 18-year-old Bernard was arrested after a chase in which he ran through the streets naked.
about 0:08:04Keeling's area code is 434.
about 0:07:03The town was named for James C. Keeling, who owned a store on the site and was the first postmaster.
about 0:07:07James C. Keeling was the son of Thomas and Margaret Keeling, who were born in Ireland; the family became prominent in Danville, about 20 minutes away.
about 0:07:42On 28 August 2019 three people were found shot to death in a house on Keeling Drive; 18-year-old Bernard was arrested after a chase in which he ran through the streets naked.
about 0:08:0436.9%
Biggest faith: Baptist, 22%
about 0:14:15White 71% · Black 29%
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
exactly average
Violent crime
▲ about one third above the average
"1,200"
Comparison: "zip code 24566". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:12:23
"59%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:13:08
"48.1"
Comparison: "about ten years older than the national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2026 about 0:13:34
"about 59%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:13:43
"71%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:13:53
"29%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:13:53
"36.9%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:15
"22%"
Comparison: "no other faith cracks 6%". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:27
"a little bit low"
Comparison: "under the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:42
"$65,956"
Comparison: "within five grand of the national average". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:44
"79"
Comparison: "100 is the regular average". Direction: below.
As told in 2026 about 0:14:58
"$135,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:15:04
"$790"
Comparison: "almost $1,500 in the rest of the country". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:15:39
"$150,200"
Comparison: "sold as is, assumed occupied". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:16:12
"$189,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:17:00
"$800,000"
Comparison: "after a $50,000 price cut". No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 0:17:33
"$118,500"
No direction stated.
As told in 2026 about 3:03:31
"exactly average"
Comparison: "the average". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2026 about 0:21:18
"about one third above the average"
Comparison: "the average". Direction: above.
As told in 2026 about 0:21:28
3.0 / 5 · average of 6
“3.2 stars from 69 reviews, which the hosts call not good.”about 0:09:05
“A common, peaceful area to live and a very family friendly place to raise kids.”about 0:09:13
“There is nothing in the town but land; the only things to do are bowling and the movies, and the people are nosy and racist.”about 0:09:23
“Born and raised there, knows every corner and hangout, loves the area and wants to bring success back, but the future does not look good and people say get out while you can.”about 0:09:51
“Crimes are getting worse, with shootings, drug busts and robberies instead of the area blooming.”about 0:10:56
“When the reviewer's son had an accident the ambulance took 45 minutes to arrive because the crew were lost.”about 0:11:40
In the early hours of 30 October 2002, Pittsylvania County sheriff's deputies were sent to a trailer on Loop Road in Keeling, Virginia, a remote community in the south of the state. Deputies found Julian Clifton Lewis Jr., a 51-year-old electrician at the Dan River Mill, alive but shot repeatedly with a shotgun. He was in pieces, moaning, and kept repeating the word 'baby'. When asked who had done it, he said, 'my wife knows who done this to me.' He died minutes later of extensive blood loss; the medical exer found that he had taken between 45 minutes and an hour to die. In the next room his son, Charles James 'CJ' Lewis, 25, an Army Reservist and security guard who was due to deploy to Iraq, had been shot eight times and was already dead.
The scene made little sense. There was no forced entry and nothing had been ransacked or taken. Five or six spent shotgun shells lay around Julian but none at all in CJ's room, which suggested two weapons and two attackers. The family pit bull had been locked in the middle bedroom. A deputy overheard her on the telephone saying, 'I told CJ about leaving that back door unlocked.'
Julian had been born in Danville on 1 January 1951, served in the Army in the Vietnam era and worked as an electrician at the Dan River Mill. He married Joyce Dale Evans in 1972 and they had three children, Jason, CJ and Kathy. Joyce died on 26 January 2000 after years of illness, and Julian sank into a depression so deep that he stopped eating and Kathy had to sit and watch him finish meals. She was 33, he was 49, and she told an acquaintance, Debbie Anderson, that she was using him for money because he bought her things.
She had an IQ of about 72. In December 2001 Jason was killed in a car accident, and Julian received $200,000 from his son's life insurance, which he placed in a Prudential Securities account that only his signature could touch.
CJ, meanwhile, had been called up in August 2002 for deployment to Iraq.
On 23 October she gave the men $1,200 for guns, and a friend, Antoine Bennet, bought a 9mm rifle and two 12-gauge Mossberg shotguns without knowing what they were for. The first plan was to ambush Julian on his drive home from work, make it look like a robbery, and then kill CJ when he came home for the funeral. Traffic and another vehicle stayed too close to Julian's truck and the attempt failed.
She then telephoned her former mother-in-law and her best friend before the police arrived.
What broke the case was the lunch. Campbell told investigators that Julian had carried the same blue and white cooler to work every day for years and never used a paper bag. Police searched the men's trailer and found the two shotguns, two pairs of rubber household gloves carrying primer residue and the shell casings that matched the ones in the house.
The Virginia Supreme Court rejected her proportionality argument in March 2004, and the Fourth Circuit rejected the claim that she was too impaired to plan the murders in June 2010. Governor Robert F. McDonnell refused clemency, and the Supreme Court declined a stay by seven votes to two. Julian and CJ are buried at Schoolfield Cemetery in Danville.
October 30, 2002 / the Lewis trailer on Loop Road, Keeling, Virginia
As told in the episode, on 17 September 2026.
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Public places are marked on the map.
crime scene
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about 1:39:25police
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