2014 Front Royal cabbie murder case headed to trial

In the wake of two murders within three days in Front Royal in recent weeks, a 2014 murder case is FINALLY poised for trial next week.  A full week is blocked off in Warren County Circuit Court beginning Monday, April 10^th, for the First Degree Murder trial of Clay Marshall Curtis.

Clay Marshall Curtis is charged with First Degree Murder in the 2014 death of Simon Funk, Jr. – Courtesy Photos

Curtis, now 63, is accused of the December 2014 murder of Yellow Cab driver Simon Funk Jr.  Funk was not on duty as a Front Royal cabbie at the time of his death.  However, it is alleged the 42-year-old Funk was killed after agreeing to give Curtis, whom he knew, a ride on his own time.

Victim Simon Funk, Jr.

In explaining Probable Cause for the search of Curtis’s room at the Relax Inn on Front Royal’s northside, a search warrant issued at 5:13 a.m. the morning of December 10 states, “Before he was taken into custody, Curtis answered the phone of Simon Funk and told Funk’s girlfriend, Carla Elliott, that ‘I’m going to prison forever and I killed him.’ ”

The affidavit for the search warrant also states, “Elliott advised that earlier in the day, Simon Funk had called her to tell her that he was going to give ‘Frederick,’ which is an alias that Clay Curtis was using, a ride into the county.  Funk advised that at first he wasn’t going to give Curtis a ride because he had seen a firearm in the waistband of his pants, but that Curtis agreed to put the firearm in the rear of the van.”

Curtis was taken into custody on an outstanding federal charge (probation violation) on December 10, 2014, following the discovery of Funk’s body at 2:35 a.m. that morning, and the subsequent search of Curtis’s motel room.

Funk’s body was discovered wrapped in a maroon comforter in a wooded area in the vicinity of 716 Kildare Road in the rural Shenandoah Farms area of eastern Warren County.  The Warren County Sheriff’s Office reported that the search of Curtis’s motel room indicated that a “maroon comforter and pillows” were missing from the bed.

A woman named Faye A. Curtis resides at the Kildare Road address near where Funk’s body was found.  At least one area resident identified a published photo of Clay Curtis as a man seen on occasion in the neighborhood around Kildare Drive.

One interesting, if unofficial, turn in the case was a Facebook post by a female the day after the murder, who claimed, “… The guy was supposed to kill my aunt (name withheld) and her husband but he accidentally killed Simon funk (sic).”  The person who made that post also claimed to be related to Simon Funk’s girlfriend, Carla Elliott.