Da Plans To Investigate I-80 Gunman’s Death

By JERRY LYNOTT Times Leader Staff Writer
Friday, December 10, 1999 Page: 2A

WILKES-BARRE – Knowing who killed Troy Oden, it will be up to the Luzerne
County District Attorney to determine whether any charges should be filed in
the shooting at an interstate rest stop.

Whether it is “criminal or justifiable ... that’s the issue,” District
Attorney Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. said Thursday.
Olszewski said he plans to review state police reports as part of his
investigation and expects to make a statement next week.

A state police sharpshooter killed Oden, who was holding a gun to the head
of his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Hall, as the two tried Wednesday afternoon to
re-board a bus at the rest stop on Interstate 80 in Foster Township.

Oden held Hall hostage in the parking area for more than six hours and
refused to accept negotiators’ demands to release her and exchange his gun for
a telephone. Police said Oden abducted Hall from Las Vegas last month,

Oden, 29, of Las Vegas, had a number of aliases and on Wednesday police
identified him as Troy Matthews.

“The investigation is going on at the troop level,” said Capt. Richard
Zenk of Hazleton. Passengers who were on the New York-bound Greyhound bus with
Hall and Oden have been interviewed, and so has Hall, 25.

In addition, the department’s Bureau of Professional Responsibility is
looking at how police acted during the incident.

An autopsy performed Thursday on Oden determined he died from a single
gunshot wound to the head, said Luzerne County Coroner Dr. George E. Hudock
Jr.

“The bullet entered on the left side, travelled downward slightly (to the
rear) and exited on the right,” Hudock said. “Death was instantaneous.”

The coroner said the autopsy results will be provided to investigators

“Whenever I have a homicide which is neutral legally, I report it to the
district attorney,” Hudock said. “Now he has to rule what kind of
homicide.”