By  Steve Huff

May 30, 2006

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Midlothian, Virginia. (Crime Library) — On Friday, May 26, 2006, police in Henrico County Virginia arrested Midlothian High School student Louis Shawn Lindenfeld, age 18. Though he was being held without bail, Lindenfeld's arrest was for auto theft. Lindenfeld lived near another Midlothian student, Andrew 'Chip' Ellis, also 18.

Chip Ellis disappeared during the evening hours on May 22^nd, only to be found in his burned-out Nissan Sentra off a dead-end road in Henrico County three days later. Chip's body was found in the trunk of the vehicle and in a state of decomposition, so positive identification wasn't made until Friday the 26^th.

Investigators obtained a search warrant to search Louis Lindenfeld's home based on suspicion that he'd stolen Chip Ellis's 2005 Nissan on Wednesday or Thursday of that week. Authorities were closely guarding whatever information they had connecting Lindenfeld to Ellis, but the Richmond Times-Dispatch indicated that students at Midlothian had confirmed that Louis Lindenfeld was a student there and that he was enrolled in an "automotive program" at the Chesterfield (County) Technical Center. Times-Dispatch writer Mark Bowes also reported that Louis Shawn Lindenfeld's father, Brian Lindenfeld, was a lieutenant in the Richmond Sheriff's Office on medical leave after motorcycle crash.

Though Lindenfeld was initially arrested for grand larceny and police had yet to state the manner of Chip Ellis's death, the two did share a math class at Midlothian High. They did not live far from one another in the Queensmill neighborhood.

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