Boone escape suspect now in regional jail

MADISON, W.Va. — A transport van was taking a Parkersburg teenager back to a state juvenile facility in Boone County when he escaped Sunday afternoon.

According to a criminal complaint, Dominic McClung, 18, had been treated for a minor head injury at Boone Memorial Hospital. The correctional officer stopped at the GoMart in Danville and that’s when McClung took off. He outran two correctional officers and went across the Coal River. He was found about three hours later crossing Long Branch Road.

McClung, who was being housed at the Donald R. Kuhn Juvenile Center in Julian, is now an inmate at the South Western Regional Jail in Logan where he faces an escape charge. Bail is set at $250,000 on that charge.

McClung was charged last fall in the Labor Day 2019 death of Karen Yeager, 68, of Parkersburg. Her body was found underneath the 5th Street Bridge in south Parkersburg. Her body had been stabbed and beaten.

McClung was 17 when he was first changed but he is being tried as an adult. He was indicted earlier this month on numerous charges including first-degree murder, robbery, burglary and concealment of a body.

A co-defendant in the case, Michael Leadman, of Parkersburg, has already pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison last October. He told the court he and a juvenile planned to break into Yeager’s home on Broad Street in Parkersburg.

McClung turned 18 last week.