Returning to the scene of the crime

In August 1968, two 17-year-old boys from Canada were stranded just north of Culpeper after being robbed.

No money, no car, no idea where they were.

Then, in one single moment, the story shifted from a tragedy to one that brings a smile to Brian Snelgrove’s face 42 years later.

Prologue
Snelgrove and Mike Samler were hitchhiking their way back home to St. Catherine’s, Ontario, about 10 miles from Niagra Falls, after already hitchhiking to Virginia Beach for vacation.

“I don’t know why we chose Virginia Beach,” Snelgrove said. “I think we thought it was kind of exotic.”

On the trip home, they avoided the major interstates, exiting Interstate 64 at U.S. 522.

“We cut off the interstate because it saves a lot of miles and a lot of time,” Snelgrove said, “not realizing how big a highway it was.”

After making it to Culpeper, they were picked up by two men in their early 20s, according to Snelgrove, and were dropped off around the intersection of North Main and West Evans streets.

“Hitchhiking wasn’t a big deal back in those days,” Snelgrove said.

They were picked up by two more men in a convertible, around the same age, and were dropped off at what is now the Salem Ruritan Club. Then, the first pair of men who gave them a ride pulled up behind them.

“I wasn’t making the connection,” Snelgrove said. “Mike Samler made the connection a lot faster.”

The first two then got into the back seat beside Snelgrove and Samler.

“I’ll never forget it, it was sort of funny,” Snelgrove said. “I thought, ‘Those are the guys that picked us up, what a coincidence. And he (Mike) looked at me and said, ‘This isn’t good.’

According to Snelgrove, the men then demanded the pair’s money and watches, and left them in the parking lot in the middle of the hot August night.

“The only thing I can remember that sticks in my mind — one guy said, ‘Next time you come through our town, don’t be wearing shorts,’” Snelgrove said.

Climax
Snelgrove and Samler, the latter of whom died a few years back, broke from the standards of hitchhiking and started standing in the middle of U.S. 522 and waving their arms.

The first car they came upon stopped. The man, who Snelgrove described as in his 30s and well dressed, gave the two a ride back into Culpeper and to the sheriff’s office.

“In the middle of the night, on a hot night, somebody that doesn’t even know you picks you up in his car,” Snelgrove said, “drives you back into town, gives you $20 — which back then was a lot of money — you never see him again, gives you his business card, gives you $20 of the goodness of his heart and then vanished.”

But the man never vanished from Snelgrove’s memory.

“The $20 is more money than we had on us than when we got rolled,” he said.

Using mug shots, Snelgrove and Samler identified the men who robbed them. Then, the two spent the night in the CCSO offices and were driven out of town by a deputy the next morning, never to return to Culpeper again.

Until now.

Denouement
On Sunday, Snelgrove, who was wearing shorts, and his wife, Karen, returned to Culpeper for the first time since that summer night.

“When he first told me I thought, what a wonderful story,” Karen said. “It’s a very good, heartwarming story.”

They drove around town, filling in the blanks to the story, like where the robbery took place, where Snelgrove and his friend stayed the night and other details.

“It was more of an exhilaration, it was exciting,” Snelgrove said. “It was like a 42-year flashback to something that had happened in your youth — it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness, I stood there 42 years ago.”

They were on their way to Virginia Beach for vacation again, with the intent to stop in Culpeper for a specific purpose — to pay back the Good Samaritan who aided him over four decades ago.

“It’s always been in the back of my mind that sometime, someday I’ve got to get back to this guy and say, ‘Look, thanks a lot,’” Snelgrove said. “So it’s taken me 42 years to do that, but I’m glad I’ve done it and it sort of brings closure to it.”

Snelgrove never found the man, but he wants to offer him his thanks if he’s still alive.

“If the fella who did this generous act 42 years ago was still in the area and can claim it, that’s great,” said Snelgrove, explaining that he lost the mysterious man’s business card when his wallet was stolen from his car years later in Toronto.

“The name Culpeper, Virginia, has never left my mind in 40 years,” Snelgrove said.

Snelgrove can be reached at (519) 438-5038 or ksnel@sympatico.ca.

Epilogue
A few months after the incident, Samler received a letter asking to testify in Culpeper. But Snelgrove said since they had entered their final year of high school in Canada, they couldn’t come back.

Neither the CCSO nor the Culpeper Police Department has a current record of the incident. Spokesmen for both said their respective departments have few records from 1968 and none matching a description of the incident.

The Virginia Records and Retention Act requires law enforcement agencies to destroy records after a certain period of time, depending on the case.