It was a night out that ended in every family’s worst nightmare. Gretchen Fleming, just 27 years old, walked out of a West Virginia bar in the early hours of December 4, 2022 — and was never seen alive again.
Fleming had been at the My Way Lounge in downtown Parkersburg, West Virginia, when she left with a man identified as Preston Pierce, 58. She left behind something that told investigators everything: her wallet and her purse — still sitting at the bar.
For over a week, her phone stayed silent. No calls home. No texts. Nothing. When Fleming failed to reach family or friends for more than seven days, a missing persons report was filed on December 12, 2022. Hundreds of volunteers flooded the area, desperately searching for any trace of her.
They found nothing — not yet.
For nearly three years, investigators chased leads, gathered evidence, and refused to let the case go cold. Then, in September 2025, the search that had haunted an entire community finally came to a devastating end. Human remains wxere discovered in a wooded area roughly 20 miles south of Parkersburg in Wirt County. They were confirmed to be Gretchen Fleming.
Pierce had already admitted in January 2023 that Fleming was in his car around the time she vanished — then abruptly refused to say another word.
But investigators kept digging — and what they uncovered made the case even more chilling. Preston Pierce is not even his real name. The 58-year-old had legally changed his identity from Darrell Lott. Even more alarming: he is a former police officer — someone who knew exactly how investigations work, and exactly how to run from one.
Pierce had fled to North Carolina, but he didn’t get far enough. U.S. Marshals tracked him to the Asheville area and arrested him. He was extradited back to West Virginia, where a Wood County grand jury had already been waiting — indicting him on May 15 on charges of first-degree murder, felony murder, kidnapping, and concealment of a deceased human body.
What Happens Next: Pierce is currently in custody pending arraignment in Wood County Circuit Court. No date has been set yet — but prosecutors now have remains, a confession of proximity, a fake identity, and a fugitive arrest. The case against him is growing by the day.
Gretchen Fleming spent three years lost in the woods. Her family spent three years searching. Now, the man who took her has nowhere left to run.
