DATE: Tuesday, July 1, 1997                 TAG: 9706300141

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   65 lines

TIME DOESN'T ALWAYS HEAL FOR MURDER VICTIM'S FAMILY

Though a decade has passed since his mother was brutally killed in her apartment, Randy Peregory clings to the hope that someone will step forward with information about the crime.

``There isn't a day that goes by that I don't wake up and think of my mother,'' said Peregory. ``If somebody would just say, `Hey, I did it . . . ' ''

But in 10 years, no one has said a word.

The question of who committed the crime remains unanswered; the motive, a mystery.

There are few details about what happened to Velma Kepley Peregory. On the morning she was killed in February 1987, the 57-year-old widow was packing boxes in her Rose Hall apartment and planning to move to a new place in Norfolk.

When a friend and the maintenance man found her the next day, Peregory was laying face-down in her living room with several gunshot wounds to her head.

Whatever happened that morning, there were no signs of a struggle, no signs that whoever committed the crime was unwelcome in Peregory's apartment.

Several hundred dollars in cash was tucked safely away in her purse; she was still wearing her gold jewelry, including a diamond ring, when she was found.

The theory, according to police, was that someone Peregory thought worked for the apartment complex or a moving company may have knocked on her door and killed her.

But police and family members had trouble grappling with that theory. ``She was very careful, according to her sons,'' said Sgt. Ray Greenwood, of the Beach police. Family members told police that Peregory didn't let strangers in and always looked through the peep hole before opening the door.

Greenwood was the lead detective in the Peregory case - his only unsolved homicide.

``You certainly feel remorseful for the family. No matter how someone is killed, it's tragic, but when somebody is killed like (Peregory) and seems to be such an innocent victim . . . you work hard to try to bring a conclusion to it.''

Greenwood investigated the killing for about a year, leaving off when he was transferred out of the homicide unit.

The case, as far as police are concerned, is still open. For the past decade, it has been reassigned and the file has been read and discussed by detectives who have few clues to set them on the trail of her killer.

``You never truly close a case until you have a suspect or an arrest,'' Greenwood said.

But somehow, he said, he hopes that someone out there with information about the murder will come forward.

``It's never too late to contact myself or the homicide supervisor,'' he said. ``I'm sure the family members, every year on the anniversary, suffer the pain of living over and over again that a family member has been taken away.''

Randy Peregory said that what he and other family members think about most is closure.

``You have happy moments and there are times when you say, `Gosh, Mom, I wish you were here,' '' Peregory said. ``You are just at a loss for words trying to figure out who did it and why.'' MEMO: Anyone with information about this or other crimes is asked to

call Crime Solvers at 427-0000. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Velma Peregory

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