THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020440
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 31 lines
Detectives arrested a 43-year-old woman and charged her with murder after her male roommate was fatally stabbed in their Lawrence Circle apartment before dawn Thursday.
It was the city's second slaying in two days.
Detectives were sent to an apartment on Lawrence Circle after someone in the residence called the city's emergency communications center, police spokeswoman Amber Whittaker said.
Police and paramedics found 52-year-old Robert L. Mitchum dead inside the apartment.
Investigators arrested Mitchum's roommate, 43-year-old Mary Jean Evans, police said. Whittaker said she wasn't certain of the relationship between Mitchum and Evans, only that they were roommates.
Evans is being held in the city jail, Whittaker said.
On Wednesday, employees of the George Washington Mini Mall on George Washington Highway found the building's owner dead near the mall office. Police said 69-year-old Thomas Venuto apparently had been beaten. Whittaker said no motive has been established in Venuto's slaying. She said investigators are checking all possibilities, including robbery.
Whittaker said the business owner was killed between 6 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. Wednesday when employees began arriving for work.
Police ask anyone with information on that case to call 488-7777.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST STABBING ARREST by CNB