Meth Suspect Eludes Police
(Article update: According to the West Virginia Regional Jail Authority website Christopher Henderson was booked into the Northern Regional Jail Tuesday, after press time. He is being held without bail.)
Kayla Gavula, 31, of 28 Rose Street Lot 32N, New Martinsville, was arrested March 5 and has been charged with possession of precursors/manufacture of methamphetamine.
The magistrate report in the case states that on March 5, at approximately 5 p.m., New Martinsville Police Department, along with West Virginia State Police executed a search warrant at Gavula’s residence. Law enforcement searched the trailer and found several items that are commonly used to manufacture meth, including a package of Lortab tablets, one pop bottle with a rubberhose taped to the top and two large plastic bottles in the kitchen that had red colored residue. The evidence was collected by state police and sent to the crime lab.
NMPD Chief Tim Cecil confirmed that the residence where the search warrant was executed is the same residence where an explosion occurred in October 2014. Furthermore, law enforcement is in the processing of obtaining a warrant for Christopher Henderson, another occupant of the residence.
“(Gavula and Henderson) are the ones that had the explosion,” Cecil noted. “They were in the trailer when it exploded last fall. Local residents kept saying they were back in the trailer and the male subject was standing out by the mailbox, asking people to buy him Sudafed.
As to the March 5 search, Cecil states that Troopers Jared Newman and Patrick Cullinan assisted himself, NMPD Lead Drug Investigator Michael Owens, along with NMPD Sergeant Don Larsen and NMPD Patrolman Utt.
“Gavula was the only one there on the scene,” Cecil noted. “We found precursors to make meth and we found what possibly might be meth.”
From the October 2014 explosion, Henderson had sustained burns on over 60 percent of his body. He had been flown to West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh. After the explosion, Henderson had presented himself to Wetzel County Hospital, which had to be shutdown for fear of contamination. NMPD Detective Donnie Harris had stated at the time that WCH had to secure the doctors and nurses that were involved with Henderson before he was decontaminated. “It kept them from seeing patients,” Harris had noted.
New Martinsville Fire Department Chief Larry Couch had noted that when the firefighters responded to the October 2014 explosion, the crews immediately identified common drug paraphernalia and recognized the remnants of an alleged “shake and bake” – style meth lab. Couch stated that all of the firefighters’ equipment, including hose, air packs, bunker gear, gloves, helmets, portable radios, thermal imaging camera had to be decontaminated.
“The thing that is so frustrating is that these people have no respect for themselves nor anyone else” said Couch. “They are either making this garbage to use, to sell, or both, and they don’t care who they hurt along the way.
“Meth labs are lethal, plain and simple,” he added. “They affect not only the people involved in making the meth, they affect everyone in close proximity, from the explosions to the hazardous materials,” Couch said.
NMPD Chief Cecil advises those who have any knowledge of Henderson’s whereabouts to call the NMPD at 304-455-9100.