Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409140098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Another search warrant has been executed, and we are in the process of examining all of the items that were seized," Vinton Police Chief R.R. Foutz said Tuesday.
He would not say where the search took place or what had been confiscated.
The search warrant, filed in Roanoke County Circuit Court late Friday, was the second in the multiple-homicide investigation to be sealed by Judge Kenneth Trabue. His order prevents release of any information about the search warrants, in which police usually detail their evidence.
More than two weeks after the Hodgeses were slain and their home gutted by fire, Foutz chose his words carefully in characterizing the progress of the investigation.
"Something may develop and an arrest may be made in two hours, or it may take two months," he said. "It depends if we get any major breaks."
About 5 a.m. Aug. 29, firefighters responded to a house fire at 232 E. Virginia Ave. The fire investigation turned into a quadruple homicide case when the bodies of William Blaine Hodges; his wife, Teresa; and their two daughters, Winter and Anah, were found.
Blaine, Winter and Anah Hodges were found upstairs in their bedrooms, each shot in the head. Blaine, 41, had been shot once. Both Winter, 11, and Anah, 3, had been shot twice with a small-caliber handgun.
In the downstairs living room, police found Teresa Hodges, 37. An autopsy revealed she had been strangled.
After several days of collecting evidence, police ruled out the possibility that the deaths were a murder-suicide or the result of a random shooter.
Further details have been scarce. Authorities have not elaborated on a motive for the killings, nor have they revealed the cause of the fire, although they have said it started near Teresa Hodges' body and that some type of accelerant was used.
Last week's search warrant was the second indication that police might have a lead.
On Sept. 1, police filed their first search warrant. In answering media requests to unseal the document, Trabue said that disclosing the contents "could seriously jeopardize the investigation."
Tuesday, members of the state police violent crimes unit continued to work out of the Vinton Police Department. Foutz said police had not narrowed their search to one suspect.
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