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Murder of Chester Poage

American murder victim

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ99509906 ↗
Source-derived summary

Chester Allan Poage (July 4, 1980 – March 13, 2000) was an American man who was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by three men in Spearfish, South Dakota, on March 13, 2000. Elijah Page, Briley Piper, and Darrell Hoadley were convicted of the torture and murder of Poage. Page and Piper were sentenced to death, while Hoadley was sentenced to life in prison. Page was executed by lethal injection on July 11, 2007, becoming the first person to be executed in South Dakota since 1947. Piper remains on death row and is the only person left on death row in South Dakota.

Background

Chester Allan Poage was born on July 4, 1980, in Norton County, Kansas. He grew up on a farm just outside Norton, but moved with his family to Rapid City, South Dakota in 1994. In 1996, his father died by suicide, just days after his parents had filed for divorce. The family moved back to Norton but later moved to Spearfish, South Dakota while Poage was at college. Prior to his death, Poage was attending Northwest Kansas Technical School and was a half-year from graduating in communications technology.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Murder of Chester Poage” as american murder victim. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 2000, 2007, 1947—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1979-11-05. The account is most persuasive where Murder, Chester and Poage can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american murder victim. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q99509906. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 2000, 2007 and 1947.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Murder of Chester Poage”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Murder of Chester Poage primary sources, Murder of Chester Poage archive and Murder research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Murder of Chester Poage”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Murder of Chester Poage” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.