THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412240320
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Police said Friday a 32-year-old woman killed her husband and two children while they slept and then phoned a relative in North Carolina to tell about it.
The relative called police about 9 a.m. Friday.
A police spokesman said it was the first triple homicide in Chesapeake.
When police arrived at a home in the 400 block of Blanche Court near Deep Creek High School, they said, they found Janice Eastman unhurt. In separate bedrooms, they found the bodies of her husband, Kenneth; her 11-year-old son, Kenny; and her 9-year-old daughter, Kelly. Kenneth Eastman's age was not available Friday.
All had been beaten and stabbed, police said. Police spokesman Tony Torres said he did not know precisely how long the victims had been dead.
Neighbors said they didn't know of anything that could have prompted the violence.
Several police sources described Janice Eastman as stoic and remorseless as she was taken into custody and questioned. She didn't resist police, Torres said.
After talking with police for several hours, she was charged with the homicides.
Police would not say what weapons were used in the slayings, or whom Eastman called afterward.
A police source, however, said Eastman called her sister in North Carolina. Her sister called Chesapeake police to tell them about the slayings.
``This is one of the saddest days in the history of the city and of the Police Department,'' Torres said.
Neighbors said Kenneth Eastman apparently had been unemployed for several months. The city directory lists him as an engineer. His truck, parked outside the home, bore Defense Department decals.
The children attended nearby Deep Creek Elementary School.
The Eastmans' six-room, brick ranch-style house is one of four on the court.
On Friday, the home was lined with Christmas lights, and flowers bloomed on a windowsill.
This is the first triple homicide in Chesapeake's history, Torres said. It brings to 20 the number of homicides that detectives have investigated in 1994. Last year, they investigated 13.
Torres said 20 could be the city's record number of slayings.
If that proves true, Chesapeake would be the second South Hampton Roads city to set a murder record this year. In Virginia Beach as of Friday evening, detectives had investigated 35 homicides, six more than the record set in 1991.
But even with the number of homicides increasing, Friday's violence surprised veteran investigators.
In Hampton Roads in 1993, only 11 women were charged with murder in a year that saw 175 homicides. Most were charged with killing a family member.
Only one other woman locally committed a crime last year similar to the one with which Janice Eastman is charged.
In Newport News, Norma Norris shot to death her 48-year-old husband and 9-year-old son. The woman, who apparently was despondent about family finances, then killed herself. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Janice Eastman...
Color photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN, Staff
One of the victims is removed from the house on Blanche Court in
Chesapeake on Friday. When police arrived at the residence, they
found Janice Eastman unharmed; her husband and two children had been
beaten and stabbed to death.
Color map
KEYWORDS: MURDER DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FAMILY VIOLENCE by CNB