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April 14, 1988
18 YEARS
AGO
Hostages safe, kidnapper dead A five-day manhunt for a kidnapper and his two hostages in Old Hollow, just east of Sperryville, ended in death Sunday afternoon. Charles Anthony Leaf II was killed by a single shot from an FBI sniper’s rifle as he made his way, with his hostages, to an FBI helicopter which he believed was to fly him out of the area. Leaf’s two hostages, his estranged common-law wife Cheryl Hart, 27, and his 3year-old son Charles A. Leaf II, were not injured. Both were taken to th3e Culpeper Memorial Hospital, where Ms. Hart was being treated for a broken nose, suffered when Leaf assaulted her. Her face showed faint bruises from a past beating, but othsrwise she appeared healthy as she walked from the fire ball to the ambulance. The young boy was reported to be in good condition and uninjured.
Immediately after the shooting, a State Police medavac helicopter hovering just out of sight landed in the field near where the kidnapper lay, and paramedics and members of several Rappahannock County rescue squad began treating Leaf for a single bullet wound in the head. Within two minutes he was aboard the helicoptef and en route to University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. The paramedics on board lost his vital organs in flight and the 30-year-old man was pronounced dead at the hospital. Kidnapped in Connecticut The ordeal began when Leaf, Ms. Hart’s former commonlaw husband, kidnapped her and their son sometime during the night of March 31 from their home in Trumbull, Conn. Her brother-in-law reported her missing after she failed to arrive for Easter Sunday dinner. According to the Trumbull Police Department Captain Fred Nacovitch, offers went to her parents’ house, where she was living with her son. They found the telephone wire cut at the connection box outside and several rounds of live 9mm ammunition on the garage floor. ' Once inside they found her bedroom door kicked open and signs of a struggle. Interviews with Leaf’s friends indicated that he had not been seen, and Capt. Nacovitch said that Leaf’s past history of violence and threats against Ms. Hart made the investigators suspect a kidnapping. By Tuesday, April 5, enough evidence had been gathered to charge Leaf with two
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