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Is a Serial Killer Terrorizing Alexandria VA?


Dan T.

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Ruthanne Lodato, a well known and beloved local music teacher, answers her door off West Braddock Road in the middle of the day Thursday and is shot to death.  A caretaker working in the home is wounded, and describes the shooter as an older, balding man with a full grey beard in a tan jacket.  There is no known connection between the shooter and the victims.

 

In November, just over a mile away, Ronald Kirby, director of transportation planning at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, is found shot to death inside his home off West Braddock Road.  The murder occurred in the middle of the day.  The case is unsolved.

 

In 2003, Nancy Dunning, wife of former Alexandria Sheriff James Dunning and nicknamed  "the Queen of Del Ray" for her efforts to revitalize the community, is shot to death in her Del Ray, Alexandria, home.  Police catch a brief glimpse of a potential suspect, a man in a black jacket and jeans seen in security camera footage following her out of a Potomac Yards Target store before the murder.  The case is unsolved.

 

Three locally prominent Alexandrians killed within a 2 mile radius.  No known motives.  Unsolved.  Alexandria Police Chief Earl L. Cook said Thursday, "We are concerned.  And the citizens should be concerned." 

 

Are these killings connected?  Alexandria Police aren't ready to say so. They will look into the possibility, with plans to compare ballistic test results and other forensic evidence.  In the meantime, residents are a little bit freaked out.  Lots of people knew Lodato, who taught music classes in the area for twenty years.  That's a lot of kids with a connection to the murdered woman.

 

 

1391825206000-Ridge-Road-Composite-for-w

Composite sketch of Thursday's shooter

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So what does the 2003 murder have to do with the other two. Not clear from excerpt. Sounds like a reporter trying to make headlines. Link?

 

The 2003 murder was in the same general  vicinity as the other two. Dunning was killed in her home in the middle of the day, just like the other two.  Like the other two, she was fairly well known in the local Alexandria community.  And like the other two, there was no clear motive and the case remains unsolved.

 

The OP is not an excerpt.  I wrote it.  It's way too early to declare that a serial killer is on the loose.  But I know first hand that people who live there are wondering if that's the case.  The installation of front door peepholes is skyrocketing, and people are leery of answering their doors.

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The FBI has joined the investigation.  Police say the reason for the FBI involvement is to assist in working through the deluge of tips generated by the release of the composite sketch.

 

 

In related news, a man was escorted out of the National Academy of Sciences auditorium in DC by U.S. Park Police at the end of a chamber concert Sunday and was questioned by them before being released.  Some concert goers were alarmed by his similiarity to the composite sketch and his relatively scruggy appearance.  One woman was so concerned she alerted building security, which contacted the Park Police. 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-false-alarm-police-apprehend-man-who-resembled-description-of-alexandria-shooter/2014/02/09/78d3e4d8-91de-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html

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