Fred Hutchins, a Botetourt County native who quickly rose through Virginia's political hierarchy to become a staff aide to U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, was found dead near Fincastle on Tuesday morning of a single gunshot wound to the head.

He was 26.

Hutchins' body was found by a Botetourt County deputy just after 7 a.m. outside a vehicle parked on the shoulder of southbound U.S. 220, according to the sheriff's office. A handgun was found beneath the body. The official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner's office in Roanoke.

The sudden death of Hutchins -- known for his loyalty, humor and unique relationship with Western Virginia's first black delegate -- left friends shocked and baffled over what happened.

"I don't question what God does," said Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, with whom Hutchins worked closely as a campaign manager and legislative aide. "He left Fred here for a short time, and he did things most people don't get to do in a lifetime."

Hutchins' family declined to comment. His uncle, the Rev. Bob Hutchins, said, "We don't feel like we can say anything right now until we get some more answers."

Botetourt sheriff's Maj. Delbert Dudding was not able to say whether the incident was a suicide or the result of foul play.

"Any time you get a gunshot wound, you work it all the way until you can rule anything out," he said, adding that for now he simply considers it "an unnatural death."

Fred Hutchins grew up off Read Mountain Road and was heavily influenced by his grandfather Guy Slusher, a die-hard Democrat and railroad union man. By grade school, Hutchins was watching C-SPAN, and by age 12 he was already working phones and going door-to-door for candidates.

"It's hard to believe, but Freddie Hutchins at age 26 was a grizzled veteran of politics," said Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a Roanoke political consultant who was a close friend and mentor of Hutchins'.

But though he may have been seasoned, Hutchins avoided the cynicism that often accompanies political experience. During his 14 years working as a Democratic Party operative in local, state and national elections, friends say he remained enthusiastic about his job and showed passionate loyalty to those for whom he worked.

Saunders said that last year he even offered Hutchins a higher-profile job paying more money, working as the deputy senior strategist for rural affairs for presidential candidate John Edwards of North Carolina.

"A deputy senior strategist at age 25? That's stuff Harvard kids dream about," Saunders said.

Hutchins, however, turned him down, opting instead to stay with the freshman senator.

"He had absolute loyalty to Jim Webb," Saunders said.

His political career started in the early 1990s when he was selected by then-House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell to serve as a page in the Virginia General Assembly.

"Dickie immediately spotted that he was a gem," Saunders said, and Hutchins went on to work in all of Cranwell's subsequent campaigns.

"He wasn't afraid of hard work and he enjoyed people," Cranwell said. "If you had to write the prescription for a good person as a political operative, that's what you'd write."

Ware met him in 1993 during Mary Sue Terry's Democratic campaign for governor.

"He said, 'One day you're going to run for office and I want to be your campaign manager,' " Ware said.

That prediction came true in 2003. Several years after a life-changing stomach reduction surgery -- which helped him drop from nearly 400 pounds to 180 pounds -- the then-21-year-old Hutchins managed Ware to election as the first black member of the House of Delegates from Western Virginia. Despite pressure to hire a black legislative aide, Ware chose to reward Hutchins with the job instead.

It was an odd pairing -- a Botetourt County country boy who loved NASCAR races and held a concealed weapons permit, working with a savvy Roanoke delegate who grew up on the streets of Greensboro, N.C. But the two worked tightly as a team.

In 2006, Ware carried Hutchins' pet bill to legalize Sunday hunting -- a measure that was quickly killed at the subcommittee level. Hutchins, meanwhile, soaked up knowledge and worked hard.

"Fred stuck with me," Ware said. "And there were times I know he was called a n----- lover just because he stuck with me, a black man."

But Hutchins never had a problem with doing what he believed. In 2006, he drew the ire of the Roanoke City Democratic Committee when he decided to go to work for Alfred Dowe, Gwen Mason and David Trinkle, who ran for the city council while calling themselves "independent Democrats."

Hutchins led the three candidates to an electoral sweep. That fall, he went from local to national politics when he worked for Webb's campaign.

"I told him the day would come when he'd outgrow me," Ware said. "That day came with Webb."

Webb issued the following statement after Hutchins' death on Tuesday.

"Freddie was one of the most honorable and friendly individuals I have had the pleasure of knowing," Webb wrote in the statement. "He was a mainstay in the Roanoke community and a friend to all who knew him. My condolences go out to his mother, Karen, and the rest of his family and friends. He will be greatly missed."

Staff writers Neil Harvey and Michael Sluss contributed to this report.

www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/171148