A fifth roommate discovered the triple homicide scene in Spotsylvania County in which another roommate is suspected. Northern Virginia Bureau Reporter Drew Wilder has the new details and possible motive.
Robbery may have been the motive for the triple homicide of three roommates in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, earlier this month, according to search warrant documents.
Alyssa Venable, 23, is suspected of killing three roommates – a 60-year-old man, a 65-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man found shot to death June 4 inside the small home they rented. Another roommate who wasn’t there at the time of the crime discovered the scene upon returning home and called the sheriff’s office.
Search warrant documents say detectives are trying to locate cash, believing that robbery might have been a motive because detectives were told a large amount of cash was possibly in the home, but it wasn't found during the police search.
Venable was arrested two days later after a high-speed chase in New York, the sheriff’s office said. They believe she first drove west, possibly to Cincinnati, before turning north to New York, where, police say, she put an Ohio license plate on her car.
According to a Spotsylvania County search warrant, the fifth roommate called police after finding one of the victims dead on the couch from a gunshot to the head. Another victim was shot in the head in the bathroom. The third was found shot in the garage and covered up by a table and a mattress.
In the hours after the killings, two friends of the suspect had reached out to police concerned about her. Documents say Venable dropped off her dog with a friend. Another friend told investigators Venable said she had “hurt people” and left them a package containing "a suicide note, cash, instructions on how to care for her dog and all of her account passwords."
Friends and family have estimated enable had lived in the home for a month or two.
Venable has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 17.
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