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Alyssa Venable Charged In Triple Murder

Alyssa Venable is an accused killer from Virginia who has been charged with the triple murders of her roommates

According to police reports officers would go to a home in Spotsylvania Virginia where they would discover the bodies of Robert John McGuire, 77, Gregory Scott Powell, 60, and Carol Anne Reese, 65. According to initial police reports the three victims all suffered major trauma to their upper bodies.

Police would soon figure out that the missing roommate, Alyssa Venable, was believed to be responsible for the triple murder

After a two day manhunt Alyssa Venable was spotted in New York state and a brief police chase would take place ending with Venable being placed into police custody. Venable will be extradited back to Virginia where she will face three counts of murder among other charges

Alyssa Venable News

A woman accused of killing her three roommates in Spotsylvania has been arrested after a two-day search.

Alyssa Jane Venable, 23, was captured after a vehicle pursuit on I-86 in Steuben County, New York, with help from the United States Marshals Service and the New York State Police.

Around 5:45 p.m. on Thursday, troopers with the New York State Police observed a gray 2009 Honda Civic matching what Vendable was known to drive and attempted to initiate a traffic stop

The driver refused to stop, and a high-speed chase ensued. At some point during the pursuit, a tire deflation device was used, causing the vehicle to crash.

Venable was taken into custody without further incident.

No citizens or law enforcement were injured during this incident.

New York State Police will be obtaining a fugitive warrant for Venable, and arrangements are being made now to bring her back to Virginia.

Deputies were called to a home on White Street Court on Tuesday, June 4, around 10 p.m. to check on the residents’ welfare.

“Upon arrival, deputies made entry into the residence to discover three adults (two men and one woman) deceased from upper body trauma. After further investigation and evidence collection, it was discovered that a roommate (Venable) had committed this heinous crime,” the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office said.

On Thursday, the victims were identified:

Robert John McGuire, 77, of Spotsylvania, Va.
Gregory Scott Powell, 60, Spotsylvania, Va.
Carol Anne Reese, 65, Spotsylvania, Va.

Anyone with more information on this case is asked to call the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office at 540-582-7115.

https://www.12onyourside.com/2024/06/07/va-triple-murder-suspect-arrested-new-york

Alyssa Venable More News

The Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office says a woman suspected of killing her three roommates may have shaved her head to evade detection.

Alyssa Jane Venable, 23, is accused of killing three people at a home on White Street Court on Tuesday.

Deputies were called to the home around 10 p.m. for a welfare check on the residents.

Bonnie Ennis lives nearby on Benchmark Road.

“My grandkids, they come out here usually every day. I didn’t want them to go outside by themselves because I never know if they’re still around,” Ennis said.

She said people there usually keep to themselves until Tuesday night when she saw police lights across the road.

“I didn’t even know what was going on,” Ennis said. “I was leaving for work around midnight, I see a lot of cop cars over there.”

Her house sits right across the street from where the crime happened.

“Makes you wonder how somebody could do something like that,” she said.

For this crime, Venable is now wanted on three counts of second-degree murder and a firearm charge.

We’ve also learned she was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery in May in a different case.

“That is terrible,” Ennis said. “I don’t know what the world’s coming to, but I hope they get her help.”

Ennis said their peaceful community is now shaken by this gruesome and violent crime.

“I just hope if she’s out there, she’s gone away from here,” she said.

On Thursday, the victims were identified:

Robert John McGuire, 77, of Spotsylvania, Va.
Gregory Scott Powell, 60, Spotsylvania, Va.
Carol Anne Reese, 65, Spotsylvania, Va.

Venable is now on the run and faces three counts of second-degree murder and a gun charge.

Venable may be driving a gray 2009 Honda Civic with a Virginia tag TRK-7451.

In an interview with FOX 5, her grandmother, Jane, begged her to call home.

“Please call home. Please call home,” Jane Venable said. “She is being accused of a heinous, heinous crime, and we don’t know the facts. We don’t know, but right now, my granddaughter is missing, and we don’t know if she’s at risk of taking her life. So we just say, please, AJ, call home.”

Anyone with information on Venable’s whereabouts is asked to call the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office at 540-582-7115.

https://www.12onyourside.com/2024/06/05/23-year-old-wanted-after-3-roommates-found-dead-inside-va-home

Elroy Harrison Tied To 2 Cold Case Murders

Elroy Harrison is a an alleged killer from Virginia who has been tied to two murders that took place nearly forty years ago

According to police reports Jacqueline Lard was reported missing from a real estate office where she was working in on November 15 1986. Her coworkers would walk into a bloody scene the next day where it became apparent something violent took place. Kids playing in the woods would find her body the next day

In March 1989 Amy Baker would disappear while she was visiting family. The eighteen year old would be reported missing by her family when she failed to return home and the family would find her body the next day

The two murder cases would go cold until investigators were able to reopen the cases and now were able to use all of the advancements in DNA testing that would lead them to the arrest of Elroy Harrison. A Grand Jury would indict Elroy Harrison on first-degree murder, abduction with the intent to defile and aggravated malicious wounding of Lard with more charges pending in the case of Baker

Elroy Harrison News

A Virginia man has been arrested after being connected to two cold case murders through DNA evidence.

The first murder occurred in 1986, authorities said. Jacqueline Lard of Stafford County was last seen on Nov. 15, 1986, as the real estate office where she worked closed for the day. The next morning, Lard’s coworkers found a crime scene at the office that the Stafford Police Department say indicated a “horrific struggle.” Investigators determined that the 32-year-old and her vehicle were both missing. Two juveniles playing in a wooded area found Lard’s body the next day beneath a pile of discarded carpet.

The second murder occurred in March 1989, when Stafford County woman Amy Baker disappeared while visiting family in Falls Church, Virginia, Fairfax County police said. Baker, 18, never returned home from the visit. Her car was found unoccupied that same night, and her family reported her missing. Her family searched the area and found Baker’s body in a wooded area near an exit ramp on I-95.

Forensic evidence from both murders was used to identify Baker and Lard’s alleged killer. In 2021, detectives with the Fairfax County Police Department’s cold case team submitted evidence from Baker’s death to DNA Labs International. A DNA profile was created and uploaded to Virginia’s state database. This allowed those investigating Lard’s death to connect the two killings.

Detectives then used forensic genetic genealogy, with the assistance of Parabon NanoLabs and the Virginia State Police’s Unsolved Violent Crimes and Cold Cases Analytical Support Team, to identify the family name of a possible suspect. Through that, police began to investigate 65-year-old Elroy Harrison, a Stafford County resident

The investigation into Harrison began in February 2024. On March 4, Harrison was indicted by a Stafford County grand jury on multiple charges, including first-degree murder, abduction with the intent to defile and aggravated malicious wounding of Lard. Harrison has not yet been charged in relation with Baker’s murder, Fairfax County officials said, but an investigation is ongoing.

Elroy Harrison was arrested on March 5, and remains in the Rappahannock Regional Jail. He has been denied bond, jail records show.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jacqueline’s and Amy’s family and friends and we hope this arrest can bring them some peace,” the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/virginia-man-arrested-elroy-harrison-dna-cold-case-murders-80s/

Elroy Harrison More News

Stafford County, Virginia, investigators arrested a suspect Tuesday in connection to two cold case murders that occurred in 1986 and 1989, after advancements in DNA forensics led to his identification.

The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office announced that 65-year-old Elroy Harrison was indicted on Monday on charges of first-degree murder, abduction with intent to defile and aggravated malicious wounding, in the death of 32-year-old Jacqueline Lard.

In a post on Facebook, the sheriff’s office said Lard was last seen on Nov. 14, 1986, when she was working at Mount Vernon Realty in the 300 block of Garrison Road.

The office closed at 9 p.m. that night, though Lard never made it home

The next morning, employees of other businesses in the area were getting ready to open for the day and discovered a scene at the realty office that indicated there was some sort of horrific struggle, the sheriff’s office said.

Both Lard and her vehicle were missing from the scene, and detectives from the sheriff’s office, with the help of the Virginia State Police Crime Scene Unit and the FBI, processed the scene and collected evidence, including blood.

On Nov. 16, 1986, two juveniles were playing in a wooded area in Woodbridge, Virginia when they discovered a body under a pile of discarded carpet. Stafford’s detectives also processed that scene, along with the FBI and Prince William detectives, and the body was identified as Jacqueline Lard.

Her missing vehicle was found on Dec. 18, 1986, in Fairfax County, which also presented investigators with additional evidence to process.

While investigators from all the agencies involved exhausted all the leads, none led to the identification of a suspect and the case went cold.

As forensic investigative genetic genealogy improved, Stafford County Sheriff D.P. Decatur, Jr. and Detective D.K. Wood pounced at the opportunity to use the advancements to possibly identify the killer.

Wood worked with Parabon NanoLabs, which provides DNA phenotyping, to analyze the DNA found at the crime scene, which linked the murder of Lard to the unsolved murder of Amy Baker, who was murdered in Fairfax County in 1989.

Stafford and Fairfax County investigators worked together to bring the murder suspect to justice, and on Dec., 14, 2023, they were able to get a name.

Following up on leads created by modern technology, investigators obtained a search warrant to get DNA from Harrison, and in February, the Department of Forensic Science reported the DNA was a match.

Harrison was indicted by a Stafford County grand jury on Monday, and he was arrested Tuesday.

He has since been placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail and is being held without bond.

The Fairfax County Police Department is collaborating with prosecutors to establish charges against Harrison for Baker’s murder, as well.

According to the Fairfax Police Department, 18-year-old Baker was last seen leaving a relative’s house in Falls Church on the night of March 29, 1989.

Her car was found on the side of Interstate 95 later that night. Amy’s body was found on March 31, 1989, in a wooded area off the same interstate.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-man-arrested-dna-forensic-advancements-link-cold-case-murders

Dylan Williams Murders Lucia Bremer

Dylan Williams was a fourteen year old living in Virginia when he would shoot and kill thirteen year old Lucia Bremer. According to court documents Lucia Bremer was walking with a friend when Dylan Williams would put a gun to her head. When Lucia swatted the gun away Williams would fatally shoot the thirteen years old

Dylan Williams would be arrested and would later plead guilty to the murder and would receive a sixty year prison sentence

Dylan Williams News

Two years after 13-year-old Lucia Bremer was killed during a walk home in Henrico’s West End, the now 16-year-old boy who confessed to her murder was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Dylan Williams accepted a plea deal in the 2021 case in January and was facing a maximum 60-year prison sentence for first-degree murder, felony use of a firearm and attempted murder. Prosecutors dropped three additional charges because of the plea.

Judge Richard Wallerstein called the case a “tragedy of unspeakable proportions.”

The judge handed down his sentencing after reading 75 victim witness statements from the 13-year-old’s friends and family.

Lucia’s mother, father and two brothers were among those who spoke at the hearing. Her dad recalled watching his wife saying, ‘Baby girl, wake up’ over and over. He added that he didn’t understand that someone who commits a crime like this could one day walk free.

The girl’s best friend said she was walking with Lucia when the then 14-year-old Williams put a gun to her head in her family’s garage. The friend said she slapped the gun away and then ran inside. That is when Williams shot and killed Lucia.

The friend’s father said his daughter has survivor’s guilt.

The girl, who has been in counseling for the trauma, told the court “losing your best friend is the worst thing” before bursting into tears.

A neuropsychologist who conducted a neuropsych exam on Williams, told the judge the teen has antisocial personality disorder, also known as sociopathy.

Williams has a high risk to re-offend because there are no effective treatments for the disorder and he has low motivation to change, according to the neuropsychologist.

However, Williams’ lawyer, Kevin Parnell, disagreed with that diagnosis. He said there has to be a chance for rehabilitation since Williams is “just a kid.” He reiterated that Williams never knew his father and that his mother died from asthma in front of him in 2018.

Before the judge issued his sentence, Williams took the stand and apologized to Lucia’s family. He said that if he could, he would exchange his life to bring Lucia back.

Levi Norwood Gets Life For Double Murder

Levi Norwood was seventeen years old when he would murder his mother and his little brother in Virginia. Now the teen killer will spend the rest of his life in prison however due to laws in Virginia he will be eligible for parole after 20 years due to his age when the double murder was committed.

According to court documents Levi Norwood would fatally shoot his mother Jennifer Norwood and his six year old brother Wyatt Norwood. Levi Norwood would attempt to murder his father.

Levi Norwood would be arrested and charged with the double murder and would ultimately plead guilty

Levi Norwood More News

Nearly three years after he murdered his mother and 6-year-old brother, a judge sentenced Levi Norwood to life in prison plus 40 years for the Feb. 14, 2020, double homicide in Midland. He will be eligible for parole in 20 years because he was a juvenile at the time of the offense; he is now 20 years old.

Norwood, a 17-year-old Liberty High School student at the time of the murders, pleaded guilty in August to murdering his mother, Jennifer Norwood, 34, and brother, Wyatt Norwood. He also admitted to trying to kill his father, Joshua Norwood, 37, but the shots intended for his father missed. Levi Norwood stole a car at a nearby house and fled to North Carolina, where he was found and taken into custody. Joshua Norwood killed himself two months later.

Circuit Judge James Fisher announced the sentence at the conclusion of a 1 ½ hour hearing Tuesday morning. It was the first time prosecutors played for the court a video recorded in a Durham, North Carolina interrogation room after Levi Norwood was arrested. The video was referenced in written narrative filed with the plea agreement, but only small excerpts from Norwood’s statements had previously been made public.

Norwood did not take the stand Tuesday and has never testified in open court since his arrest.

In the video from the North Carolina interrogation room, Norwood is alone in the small room, handcuffed and sitting in a chair. After about 20 minutes of silence, he sees the security camera and begins to mumble to himself, eventually raising his voice to an audible level to recount the murders in excruciating detail over an hour of rambling, sometimes unintelligible monologue.

Norwood says in the video that he killed his parents because they would not let him be romantically involved with a girl whom they felt was worsening his mental state. Because his parents were “taking his life away” by refusing to let him be with the girl, he said, killing them “is self defense,” he says. “I did it all just so I would see [the girl],” he says at another point, explaining that he planned to run away with her after murdering his family.

The only regret he expresses is his failure to kill his father, whom Levi Norwood shot at and missed before fleeing the scene. “All they had to do was just emancipate me,” he says at another point. “This would have never happened to them.”

Why he killed his 6-year-old brother is less clear. Norwood said at one point it was to save him from “rape and abuse in an orphanage.” But while he admits that it was “kind of sad” to kill his brother, he at other points appeared to relish the act. Wyatt “will never get to enjoy his Valentine’s Day or birthday or any of the other things in life, because I killed him.” (According to prosecutors, Norwood told a psychiatrist during a later evaluation that he killed Wyatt to “punish” his parents.)

Throughout the monologue, Norwood jokes and chuckles about the more gruesome details of the murders.

He muses at various times about what version of “insane” he might be diagnosed with, whether he will be sent to a juvenile or adult prison and what last meal he should choose if he is sentenced to death. At other times, he appears to address imaginary friends with names like “Smiley,” “Viper” and “Zero.” Looking around the room, he says, “I like this. It’s fun. It’s fitting for me.” He says that the murders “actually helped” his anxiety.

“Why is it so enjoyable killing people?” he muses. “It just feels right.”

He often repeats his frustration about his own mental state. “I wish I could feel f—— emotion,” Norwood says at one point. “I want to be normal.” But like in many parts of the monologue, he quickly changes the subject. “At least I don’t have to worry about my math grade anymore.”

Norwood’s attorney, public defender Ryan Ruzic, did not dispute any of the facts surrounding the murders themselves. But Ruzic pointed out that Norwood alleged to a doctor after the murders that his father had physically and mentally abused him from a young age, asking the judge to consider those allegations when imposing a sentence.

Joshua Norwood allegedly forced a “very young” Levi to kill small animals, insulting him when he was reluctant to participate. Joshua Norwood allegedly threatened to kill his son if he ever dated a Black girl — or was gay — sometimes pointing a gun at his son to make the point. The father allegedly beat Levi in a hardware store with a crowbar in a fit of rage. Joshua Norwood allegedly “actively resisted” attempts by other family members to get Levi mental health treatment.

Ruzic said that Joshua Norwood’s alleged treatment of his son made it “almost inescapable” that, especially with severe mental health issues left untreated, Levi would engage eventually in some kind of violence. “This is not a crime that came out of nowhere,” Ruzic argued, adding that Levi grew up in an “extremely racist … abusive and demeaning” home environment because of his father.

“Society, had we known what was happening, maybe could have stopped it,” Ruzic said. “In many ways, [Levi] is indeed a victim.”

The prosecutor, Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney Scott Hook, successfully rebutted Ruzic’s arguments for leniency, however. Even if his “dad was the worst person, Levi has taken his place,” Hook argued. “I would argue that Levi is worse than any way they portray his father.”

And, Hook said, Norwood only alleged the years of parental abuse after he was arrested. The murders were not about any alleged abuse, Hook said, pointing out that the monologue from the North Carolina interrogation room made no mention of any alleged abuse. Instead, Hook argued, “This is about a girl.”

Norwood’s family was “just a normal family with their flaws,” Hook argued, “but Levi is a dangerous person.”

In an especially poignant moment, Hook read a note Joshua Norwood wrote in Levi’s birthday card a month before the murders. “I love you buddy,” the card read, “and I’m proud to call you my son.”

https://www.fauquier.com/news/public_safety/levi-norwood-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-murdering-mother-and-brother/article_1c55f362-a198-11ed-a56d-4fae91dd2304.html

Newport News Teacher Abby Zwerner Shot By 6 Year Old Boy

Abby Zwerner who is a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News Virginia was shot in the chest by a six year old boy. According to police reports a disagreement took place between Abby Zwerner and the six year old boy when the child pulled out a gun and fired. Abby Zwerner would tell the other students to run before collapsing from her injury. The six year old boy was taken into police custody as authorities try to figure out what to do with the child. Of course the main question being asked is how the heck a six year old boy had access to the gun in the first place. Thankfully Abby Zwerner is expected to survive her injuries

Abby Zwerner More News

A 6-year-old boy is in police custody after he shot a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, Friday afternoon, Police Chief Steve Drew said in a news conference.

“The individual is a 6-year-old student. He is right now in police custody,” Drew said. “We have been in contact with our commonwealth attorney and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man.

Drew said the female teacher – who is in her 30s – was shot inside a classroom and added that “this was not an accidental shooting.”

The police chief said there was an altercation between the teacher and the student, who had the firearm, and that a single round was fired.

Drew, who had earlier said the teacher was in critical condition, said Friday evening her injuries were considered life-threatening but that there was “some improvement in the last update that we got.”

There were no other students involved, the chief said.

The investigation is ongoing, he added.

“We’ll get the investigation done, there’s questions we’ll want to ask and find out about. I want to know where that firearm came from, what was the situation,” Drew added.

Richneck Elementary School will be closed Monday, according to Newport News Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. George Parker.

“I’m in shock, and I’m disheartened,” Parker said in Friday’s news conference. “We need to educate our children and we need to keep them safe.”

“We need the community’s support, continued support, to make sure that guns are not available to youth and I’m sounding like a broken record today, because I continue to reiterate that: that we need to keep the guns out of the hands of our young people,” the superintendent said.

Officials are also looking into any past instances that may have transpired before the shooting, Parker added.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/us/newport-news-virginia-shooting/index.html