Was caring nature a factor in Sarajane Hakopian's death?

Sarajane Hakopian wasn't so much the unofficial mayor of Montpelier as she was its kindest soul.

"Everybody knew her; she was the heart of what Montpelier is all about," said Kelly Gandara, a friend for 10 years. "You always saw her with her tea, inseparable. She was a friend to everyone she met."

Hakopian, 44, was discovered dead Monday afternoon by a neighbor inside her log-cabin-style home on Beaverdam Road, three miles south of the Hanover County village that gives the road its name. Hanover sheriff's officials have not yet released a cause of death, but they are investigating the case as a homicide.

A tea kettle lawn ornament still marks the driveway — along with the sign just inside the gate that reads, "Close the Beaverdam gate!"

Brian S. Mallory, 42, of the 15100 block of Dunn Road in Montpelier was arrested in a bus station in Jacksonville, Fla., shortly before 1 a.m., Tuesday. Hakopian's minivan was found nearby, according to authorities. Mallory is charged with grand larceny but is under investigation in Hakopian's death, police said.

The minivan had several bumper stickers, among them "coexist." The word exemplifies Hakopian's love and care for all people, her friends said Tuesday. But it also may have helped lead to her death.

Police described Mallory as Hakopian's boyfriend. Associates said Tuesday that the friendship with the convicted felon began when Mallory worked cutting Hakopian's grass. His hired-hand status blossomed into something more serious that saw Mallory move from his squalid life on a dead-end road to a loving home where chickens, roosters and a pig had free range of the house.

Hakopian's two young children from an ended marriage lived there as well, as did from time to time a parade of young people whose families wanted their offspring to share in Hakopian's nurturing but strict ways.

Mallory, who has diabetes and at the time of his conviction in a brutal armed robbery 20 years ago stood 6 feet, 4 inches and weighed 325 pounds, was something else. "We used to tell her, 'Don't mess with the guy,'" said Frank Smith, who works at an auto shop near Mallory's home. "I used to give him rides, but he was not a good person for her to be around."

Hakopian, though, saw no boundaries associated with color, religion, political beliefs or social standing. She sang in the choir at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Bumpass and was the president of the Lady's Auxiliary for American Legion Post 90, whose chapter house is across the street from her home.

"The American Legion has lost one of its own, Sarah Jane Hakopian, [who] was murdered in her home in Beaverdam, Va.," a posting Monday night stated. "She will be greatly missed by all of us. We ask that everyone pray that her two children, P.J. & Molly, that they will find some kind of peace in this horrible loss. We Love You Sarah!"

Virginia Department of Corrections records show Mallory has a history of felonies in Hanover dating to February 1991, when he was sentenced to 90 years in prison for robbery, kidnapping and firearms convictions with 56 years suspended.

Ray's Quick Stop, located off Pouncey Tract Road, was a target.

"They come in and put the gun on my nose," Barbara Koenig, an owner then, said Tuesday. "I'll never forget it. There was three of them. My son was so scared — he was just a little thing then — he slept with a BB gun."

Mallory was convicted of probation violations in January 2006, when he was given seven years in prison, part of the suspended sentence from the earlier convictions. He was released in October 2009 and ordered to supervised probation in Ashland.

Mallory, in tight blue script letters, wrote from prison, trying to persuade a Hanover judge to let him go free back in 2006.

"I have simply come to just allow the world to see who I am without fear, because I am basically a kind, caring soft spoken person that have kept hidden most of my life because of my large stature," he wrote.

"I am sure you would see that I am a descent, respectful person that could really use for help you aid and assistance."

The judge scribbled his reaction on a Post-it Note: "Whatever it is that he wants is denied."

Hakopian's gifts live on.

"She would stop me on the road out front of my house — she'd be driving down here picking up cans — and just ask me if I needed a hand, if I needed a ride," said Glenda Morris, who lives on Bethany Church Road. Said Gandara: "I can't imagine her ever doing anything to anyone that would make them mad at her. It is a loss to everyone."