Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 2, 1995 TAG: 9501030111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Three hours into the new year, police were called to an upstairs, three-room apartment at 913 41/2 St., where they found the bodies of three men and two women: more slayings than Roanoke recorded in all of 1994.
By 3 p.m. Sunday, a suspect was in custody. Robert Michael May, 27, who lived next door, was charged with one count of murder. He has confessed to all five killings, Maj. J.L. Viar of the Roanoke Police Department said, and additional charges are pending.
May is suspected of killing a couple who lived in the carriage house apartment, Dale J. Arnold, 36, and Susan Lynne Hutchinson, 44. Police were withholding the names of the three other victims, two men and a woman visitor from a nearby Mountain Avenue apartment, until relatives could be notified.
A motive for the killings was not clear Sunday, but police said they have ruled out a drug-related or "gang" type killing. "The offenses most likely resulted from a party-type atmosphere that became heated and an altercation resulted," Viar said in a news release.
As police removed the sheet-covered bodies from the apartment Sunday afternoon and loaded them into waiting ambulances, a crowd of neighbors gathered outside and tried to comprehend what had happened. Some had heard the shooting the night before but assumed the noise was firecrackers set off by New Year's Eve revelers.
A woman who lived directly below the apartment had no doubt that something had gone terribly wrong about 3 a.m.
The woman, who asked that she not be identified, said she had been kept up most of the night by loud music and footsteps from above.
"I was trying to sleep, but then I heard a crash, and a 'pop, pop, pop,''' she said. "And then there was another crash.
"I called 911 and I heard another pop when I was on the phone. I asked the dispatcher: 'Did you hear that? Did that sound like a gunshot?' And she said that it did."
When a police officer arrived minutes later, he saw a man outside the apartment and told him to stop. The man - who police now believe was May - fled, leading the officer on a chase to the roof of a nearby house, where he apparently jumped in making his escape.
After losing the suspect, the officer returned to the carriage house and discovered the worst killing scene in Roanoke since 1973, when a family of six was found shot to death.
Climbing a flight of stairs at the rear of the building, the officer found the door ajar. The entrance was blocked by a refrigerator that had been partially overturned and a microwave oven that was knocked to the floor.
After managing to squeeze inside, police found three men on the kitchen floor, the news release said, "almost stacked upon each other" in the 8-by-10-foot room.
The two men on the bottom had been shot in the back and the head; the third man, who had apparently fallen onto the others, had been shot in the head.
After confirming that all three men were dead, police officers stepped over the bodies and made their way to the living room.
There, they found Susan Hutchinson and another woman had also been shot in the head, one on the right side and the other on the left. One woman was seated on the couch and the other was in a chair.
"It seemed like they were more or less at rest or at ease in the positions they died in," Viar said. "Either they were sleeping or they were not concerned about the act that was going to come upon them."
There was no sign of forced entry to the apartment, but evidence collected at the scene suggested a struggle had occurred. "I'd say that there was a violent struggle there," Viar said.
The bodies were taken to the morgue, but autopsies will not be conducted until Tuesday, police said.
Police technicians spent much of the day collecting evidence at the 41/2 Street apartment.
As some officers concentrated on the grisly aftermath, others were tracking down the suspect.
The last time the suspect had been seen was by the officer who first responded to reports of gunfire. When the officer arrived at the scene - and before he knew that five people were dead - the officer saw the suspect in a darkened area outside the apartment.
The man refused an order to stop and ran to an adjacent building at 427 Highland Ave., which later was determined to be May's home. The suspect climbed onto the roof of the two-story house, scrambled into a window from the roof and then apparently jumped to the ground through another window.
A .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun believed to be the murder weapon was found on the edge of the roof near where the suspect had scrambled up, police reported. The officer, who lost the suspect after he jumped to the ground, recalled that the man was bleeding from the hand.
When police caught up with May at a Windsor Avenue apartment about 3 p.m., he had an injury to his hand.
Before their investigation led them to Windsor Avenue, however, police had tracked down leads on the gun.
A man told authorities he had been partying with May earlier in the night, and that May had helped him to bed. Police now believe May took the man's gun before going to the nearby apartment where Arnold and Hutchinson lived.
The owner of the gun was able to tell police how many rounds of ammunition were in it. The gun was empty when it was recovered later from the rooftop.
Later Sunday, police learned that May was in a friend's house in the 900 block of Windsor Avenue Southwest.
Officers rushed to the house and surrounded it. The resident of the house told police there was no need to draw their weapons. "Police responded that they would decide that when the individual sought came into view with his hands over his head," the police news release said.
Seconds later, May walked out and was arrested without resisting.
He was taken to police headquarters, where police said he confessed to all five slayings. Viar declined to elaborate on the confession.
Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said May will be charged with capital murder, but probably not until next week, after Caldwell's office has had a chance to review the case. May is being held without bond in the Roanoke City Jail on one count of murder.
Caldwell said he will have to learn more about the case before he decides whether to seek the death penalty.
"I'm positive that he will be charged with capital murder," Caldwell said, "but whether it's a death penalty case, that remains to be seen."
Roanoke had an unusually peaceful 1994, with just four homicides all year. Last year's first homicide did not occur until September. Over the past decade, Roanoke has averaged 14 killings a year.
The last time so many people were killed in the city in one act was in 1973, when a locksmith, his wife and their four children were shot to death in their Northwest Roanoke home. That killing, described at the time as one of the largest mass killings in Roanoke history, was determined to be a murder-suicide committed by the father, Charles M. Nail.
Within hours after Sunday's killings, at least 20 Roanoke police officers were working full time on the investigation. After the speedy arrest of a suspect, most of the homicide detectives were headed home by 6 p.m.
"Each officer - whether patrol, technician or investigator - is to be commended for their excellent work that led to the detection and apprehension of the accused," Viar wrote in his news release.
While police scrambled to solve the case, friends and neighbors congregated around the apartment, wondering what had happened.
Mary Truedell came across the scene on her way to a Mountain Avenue apartment, where she had planned to watch football on television with three of the victims.
Instead, she ended up identifying their bodies for police.
"They were just regular people trying to make it," Truedell said of the three victims who had still not been publicly identified Sunday night. "They would get jobs when they could."
Truedell had visited the three people Saturday, and they had spoken about going over to Arnold's and Hutchinson's apartment that night to celebrate New Year's.
Arnold and Hutchinson had moved into the apartment about four months ago, and were described by neighbors as a quiet couple - except for the loud music they sometimes played.
"They just kind of minded their own business," said Adair Branner, who lives across the street.
Keith Rhodes, who lives in the same building as the other three victims, said he saw them walking down an alley Saturday night on their way to the apartment where they died.
"They had a 12-pack of beer and a bag of ice," Rhodes remembered. "They told me Happy New Year and walked down the street. That's the last time I saw them."
Keywords:
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by CNB