Virginia state troopers knew they were coming upon a grisly scene on the evening of October 17, 1984. A small airplane had crashed in the remote Fancy Gap Mountain of Bland County in the western part of the state. What was found on the plane, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza, however, was anything but bland.

Troopers were not surprised to find the badly charred body of the pilot still strapped in the cockpit. It was the cargo in the rear of the plane that took center stage: over 1,200 pounds of premium marijuana worth over $1 million.

By the time the plane was traced to Wallace “Wally” Thrasher two weeks later, the forty-four-year-old local pilot could not be found.

Over the following three weeks, Thrasher himself was twice alleged to have perished in plane crashes. Both supposed incidents were investigated thoroughly and both turned up no body. Authorities believed the drug smuggler had tried to stage his death, and a global search ensued.

Forty years later, the question of Where’s Wally? is still unanswered.

Wally Thrasher

Navy veteran Wally Thrasher and his wife Olga had two children, six-year-old Montana and younger daughter, Maya.

Montana and Wally

 

The couple owned a ten-acre country estate near the town of Dublin in Bland County. They lived in a large log cabin, built by Wally. The two–story ten-room house encompassing a Jacuzzi and separate guest house was worth over $200,000, well over $500,000 in today’s money.

After tracing the wrecked plane to Thrasher, investigators learned how he could afford such a lavish lifestyle.

The Thrasher Estate

The United States Marshals’ investigation found that Wally Thrasher had been running illegal cargo for Bolivian drug lord Roberto Suarez since 1974. Suarez was a major supplier of Columbia’s Medellin Cartel, found and led by Pablo Escobar.

During the 1970s and ‘80s, Suarez became known as the “King of Cocaine” after likely becoming the world’s largest cocaine producer, taking in an estimated $400 million a year at his zenith.  He funneled the crack and other drugs to many criminal organizations.

Roberto Suarez

Thrasher and his cohorts flew tons of marijuana and cocaine from Bolivia, Columbia, and Mexico, into Florida and then to the western region of Virginia.

From there, distributors smuggled the drugs into American cities, principally Chicago and Detroit.

Drug Runner

Thrasher’s illicit practice was carried out with few hitches for a decade, until the ill-fated plane crash of October 17, 1984.

The body found in the Beechcraft Bonanza was initially believed to be that of Michael Goldstein. He was listed as the aircraft’s previous owner and reportedly fueled the plane at an airport in Florida a few days prior to the crash. Though the remains were badly charred, fingerprint comparisons showed they were instead those of twenty-four-year-old Mark Bailey, another of Thrasher’s pilots.

Thrasher had registered the plane under a false identity, but he was ultimately identified as having paid cash for the plane’s major repairs and hangar fees. His fingerprints were also found in the downed plane.

Big News

As the authorities prepared the warrant to arrest Thrasher, an article in a local newspaper, the Southwest Times, reported the plane owner had met the same fate as his pilot, having perished in a charter crash in Jamaica on November 5, three-and-a-half weeks after the dope-ridden Beechcraft crashed in Bland County, Virginia.

Investigators in both the United States and Jamaica, however, found no evidence or record of such a plane crash, nor any witnesses to the alleged incident.

Did Thrasher Perish in the Crash?

Thrasher’s “widow,” Olga, produced a death certificate of her husband’s demise, but no record was found of the doctor whose signature was on the certificate.

Investigators determined the document was a fake.

Phony Death Certificate

Olga Thrasher admitted she paid her lawyers to concoct the phony death certificate, saying she was worried her property would be confiscated if authorities knew her husband had died during a drug run. After she and her attorneys were charged with fraud and money laundering, Olga agreed to tell authorities what she knew.

Olga said a second pilot, Nelson King, was aboard her husband’s plane when it crashed in Bland County on the evening of October 17, 1984. She said the badly-injured pilot staggered to a house where he used a garden hose to wash the blood from him. This account was confirmed by the homeowner.

King then made his way to a payphone at a nearby hotel where he called Thrasher. The drug runner picked him up as troopers and deputies were racing toward the crash site.

Olga Thrasher

The couple tended to the injured pilot at their home; a neighbor recalled seeing King at the residence.  Realizing King’s wounds were severe, Olga says Wally then flew his injured pilot to a Florida hospital; he told medical personnel that King had been in a motorcycle crash.

Thrasher knew the crash of the plane meant the crashing of his smuggling operation, as it was only a matter of time before the authorities would determine that he was the owner. After returning home from Florida, Olga says her husband stuffed a quarter of a million dollars in cash into a travel bag and flew to the Central American country of Belize, where he had planned to buy a load of marijuana.

Olga says her husband called her on October 27, ten days later, saying he would be home soon, but that she never saw or heard from him again.

Olga and Wally

On March 13, 1985, five months after her husband’s disappearance, Olga Thrasher was arrested and charged with conspiring to abduct and kill Nelson King. Prosecutors contended that she believed he had skimped on paying for a $250,000 load of marijuana and that her beloved was killed in retribution.

The Thrasher’s guest house resident, Freddie Gilbert, told police Olga had paid him $500 to purchase a gun to kill King and to make the murder appear like an accidental death. Gilbert agreed to secretly tape conversations with Olga.

Shortly thereafter, King was arrested on drug smuggling charges in Florida; Olga was also in handcuffs soon thereafter. She was released on bail and agreed to testify against King and others involved in her husband’s drug-running operation.

Olga Arrested

The injured pilot recovered from his wounds.

In May 1985, Nelson King was convicted of multiple drug charges and sentenced to six years in prison.

Nelson King

Five months later, Olga says she received a call from one of her husband’s associates, telling her he had been killed in a plane crash near Dangria, Belize on November 4, 1984, the day before he had earlier been said to have died in the Jamaica plane crash. The associate said that an engine of a small Piper Navajo plane had failed after reaching approximately one-hundred feet in the air. He theorized the plane was overloaded with pot.

Olga said the man told her the fire had been so intense that the plane was burned to a pulp and that her husband’s remains had been obliterated.

Wally is Again Alleged Dead

Unlike the alleged plane crash in Jamaica, authorities confirmed the plane crash in Belize as well as the intensity of its destruction.

They could find no proof, however, of Wally Thrasher being on board.

The Piper Navajo Plane in Which Wally Thrasher Was Allegedly Obliterated

In May 1986, one-and-a-half years after Thrasher was last seen and seven months since he had allegedly perished in the Belize plane crash, another of the drug runner’s associates came to Olga’s home carrying something she thought she would never see again: her husband’s wedding ring. The associate claimed the ring had been recovered from the plane crash in Belize.

The ring had nary a crack and the inscription was intact. Investigators found it hard to fathom that an aircraft could be melted while a ring aboard it had been unscathed. They believed if the ring had been on the plane when it crashed and burned, it would have become an ingot of gold. Laboratory tests supported their suspicions, as the ring showed no signs of burn exposure.

Thrasher’s Wedding Ring 

Supposedly Retrieved from the Belize Plane Crash

Investigators concluded Wally Thrasher was not aboard the plane that crashed in Belize. After learning of its crash, authorities believe the drug runner gave the ring to his associate to return to Virginia in an effort to fool them.

Police accepted Olga’s story but with an added addendum; they believed the $250,000 was the drug runner’s down payment on a new life as a fugitive.

Wally’s Ruse?

Olga Thrasher may be nearly as crafty as her alleged dead husband. In March 1987, she pled guilty to money laundering, helping Nelson King elude authorities, and conspiring to abduct him, but received only three years’ probation in exchange for testifying against King and others involved in her husband’s drug-running operation.

In addition to getting one of her husband’s pilots imprisoned, Olga herself avoided jail time while at the same time, helping put two of her attorneys behind bars.

Olga Gets Offs

Carl McAfee was convicted of money laundering and aiding and abetting, as he was found to have helped Olga stay in the drug business after her husband’s disappearance. McAfee, noted for having defended Francis Gary Powers, the pilot shot down by the Soviet Union in a U2 spy plane in 1960, was sentenced to fifteen months in prison; he was released after serving three months.

Keith Neely, another of Olga’s lawyers, was sentenced to ten years in prison after being convicted of money laundering and drug charges.

                                     Carl McAfee                    Keith Neely

 

Olga also assisted the DEA in an undercover operation resulting in the arrest of thirteen international drug traffickers and the seizure of $150 million in cocaine.

It was the largest drug bust in Virginia history.

Olga is All Smiles

Roberto Suarez, the Bolivian drug lord who employed Wally Thrasher, was arrested in 1988 and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He was released after serving half of his sentence.

Suarez did of a heart attack in 2000, at age sixty-eight.

Scum Succumbs

As recently as 2000, sixteen years after he was last seen, hundreds of sightings were reported of Wally Thrasher across Belize.

Belize authorities and INTERPOL deemed many of them credible but could not confirm any of them.

Aged-Enhanced Image of Thrasher

In August 2015, much to the dismay of many investigators, federal prosecutors, saying they believed him deceased, dropped all charges against Wally Thrasher.

The United States Attorney’s office issued a statement saying it had evidence, which they refused to specify, that Thrasher is dead. Spokesmen did, however, state they did not believe he had perished in a plane crash.

Some have speculated that Thrasher, after fleeing abroad, may have later been double crossed and murdered by others involved in the drug business.

Declared Dead

Montana Thrasher, the son of Virginia’s most infamous drug smugglers, is now a policeman.

Wally Thrasher may well be dead, but he does not lie beneath this tombstone.

Thrasher’s Son Chose the Right Side of the Law

Wally Thrasher could have dashed and crashed, fleeing after the downing of the plane in Virginia only to himself perish in a plane crash in Central America.

On the other hand, as many still believe, Thrasher may have had a stash of substantial cash in place for such a scenario and that the now eighty-three-year-old avid Jimmy Buffett fan, has, for nearly four decades, been drifting across the Caribbean, wasting away on Margaritas and eating cheeseburgers in paradise.

After forty years, the question of “Where’s Wally?” is still unanswered.

Where’s Wally?

Several members of my Facebook group believe Wally Thrasher looks like Billy Bob Thornton. Others have said he resembles Dirk Benedict (Face of The A-Team) and Henry Winker (The Fonz on Happy Days.)

Which actor do you think Wally Thrasher most resembles?

A Resemblance to Which Actor?

SOURCES:

• America’s Most Wanted
• Chasing the Squirrel by Ron Peterson
• Roanoke Times
• Southwest Times, Pulaski, VA
• Southwest Virginia Today
• Unsolved Mysteries
• WDBJ CBS Affiliate Channel 7 Roanoke