CHESAPEAKE BOY CHARGED WITH KILLING HIS FATHER AUTHORITIES SAY HE LEFT A NOTE ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL Author: JOANNE POINDEXTER THE ROANOKE TIMES< PHOTO DIRECTOR RON BELL CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.

Edition: METRO Section: VIRGINIA Page: B1

Article Text: A handwritten note with an ominous message found on the Appalachian Trail in Botetourt County has led to the arrest in Tidewater of a 16-year-old Chesapeake boy on charges he killed his father last week.

Shane Cubbage turned himself in at the Chesapeake Police Department on Friday evening after police discovered the body of his father, Forrest G. Cubbage, at the family home, according to police spokeswoman Cheryl Sitler. Authorities did not release any other information on his arrest.

Shane Cubbage is being held without bond. He appeared in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Monday and is scheduled to appear in court again May 29 for a preliminary hearing in which a judge could send his case to a grand jury. If indicted, Cubbage would be tried as an adult, Chesapeake Commonwealth's Attorney Randall Smith told The Virginian-Pilot in a story published Tuesday.

Events that led police to the Cubbages' home started with some through-hikers' discovery of a note at Wilson's Creek Shelter on Thursday night.

The note, which authorities said was signed "Shane Cubbage," said that Cubbage "had killed his father in Chesapeake, and that he was gone to the mountains to get away, but that he was going back to Chesapeake to do something big that would be newsworthy,'' according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Chesapeake Circuit Court.

The hikers alerted the Botetourt County Sheriff's department. Deputies looked around the immediate area near Camp Bethel but didn't find the boy, said Botetourt Sheriff Ronnie Sprinkle. Then, they sent an e-mail about the note to Chesapeake police.

Police went to the Cubbage home in Chesapeake on Friday and had to force open a door. They found Forrest G. Cubbage, 43, a chief petty officer in the Coast Guard, dead in the front of the house

His body was taken to the medical examiner's office, where a preliminary autopsy has been performed. Police and the commonwealth's attorney, however, are not releasing information, Sitler said. She also said police have not determined how long Cubbage had been dead.

Police could not say with certainty that Shane Cubbage had visited the AT last week. But messages in the register at the Wilson Creek Shelter indicated that he had been there or near there earlier in the week and that his presence caused a stir among some hikers.

On Sunday, there were several comments in the register suggesting that some hikers had encountered a despondent teen on the trail who might be suicidal. There was also a reference to several large knives found in a shoulder bag and to police searches of the area.

A classmate said Shane Cubbage was an only child who was planning to stay with his grandmother in North Carolina because his mother was overseas and his father was preparing to deploy.