THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408210084
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
The plaque behind the bar at Lanna's Pub might go unnoticed to first-time customers of the one-room tavern in a tiny strip of shops near the intersection of Pembroke and Independence boulevards.
But to the former patrons of the Witchduck Inn, it has a meaning that goes far beyond the words on its face: ``In memory of L.V. Son, J.R. Parrish, Karen Rounds and Aziz Gren. Witchduck Inn. June 30, 1994.''
That was the date when the Witchduck Inn was transformed from a friendly neighborhood bar into something infamous - the location of the worst mass slaying in Virginia Beach history.
Parrish, Rounds, Gren and Son, the bar's owner, all were shot with a killings. His girlfriend, Denise Holsinger, a former Witchduck Inn waitress, was present at the killings and allegedly urged Clagett to revenge her firing with murder. Both are in the Virginia Beach jail awaiting trial.
On Saturday night, Son's widow, Lanna, and relatives of two of the other victims gathered with friends and customers to rechristen the old Witchduck Inn and to start a new and perhaps happier chapter in the bar's, and their own, history.
``I was thinking of keeping the same name,'' said Lanna Son, as she fought back tears and greeted well-wishers at the pub's reopening. ``But tragedy is not a good thing to remember. We want to remember the people who were killed, not how they got killed.''
Her son, 5-year-old Joshua, was sleeping in a back office at the Witchduck Inn on the night of the murders. His deep sleep, Lanna Son said, was the one blessing from that dark night. Had he awakened, she believes, Joshua too would have been the killed.
``Oh yeah, absolutely, they would have shot him, too,'' the 40-year-old Vietnamese native said with a shudder.
Now, she said, Joshua worries that his mother too might be killed, and wonders why anyone would have wanted to kill his father.
``I tell him that some people are good and some people are bad and sometimes the bad people do bad things,'' Son said.
Son said that she considered not reopening the bar, but was encouraged to do so by Witchduck Inn customers and friends. Eventually, she came to believe that keeping the bar going would be a fitting memorial to her husband, a Vietnamese boat person who came to the United States in 1975 with nothing and made good.
The Witchduck Inn was a dream come true for her husband, Son said, and renaming the bar after herself is part of her memorial.
``I want people to know I am his wife and want to carry on his dream as long as I can,'' she said.
The reopening gave relatives of the victims another opportunity to come together, continuing a relationship that has developed since the murders. Kevin Rounds, widower of Karen, and Carolyn Cussins, Parrish's mother, agreed that seeing one another helps them cope. They have gotten together before with Gren's relatives and Lanna Son, and expect to continue doing so.
It has helped them forge a commitment, they say, to make sure Clagett and Holsinger are punished appropriately.
``We families have all promised that we will be at every hearing, every trial and every parole hearing to make sure they never walk on the street again,'' Cussins said.
Others expressed bewilderment at the thought of what had happened less than two months before, at the same place where Saturday they sat casually drinking beer and wine. A few were curiosity-seekers, but most were old Witchduck Inn customers, who pledged their support for Son and her business effort.
``People will come in here in spite of what happened, just so the bar will be a success,'' said 35-year-old John Creech, a former Witchduck Inn customer. ``L.V. made this place somewhere you wanted to go, and we want Lanna to succeed. Now we've got our Witchduck back, more or less.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/Staff
Lanna Son, widow of Witchduck Inn owner L.V. Son, has renamed the
bar and reopened it as a memorial to her husband and the three
others who were killed there June 30.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING ARREST by CNB