Shaken by recent killings, a community mourns

A spate of four killings in Hanover over a two-week period has left residents of the normally tranquil county saddened and shaken.

"It's very disturbing," said Jay T. "Tommy" Thompson, owner of the Mechanicsville Drug Store. "It's kind of the talk of the town."

On Jan. 21, a 16-year-old Atlee High School student was shot to death in what officers said was a drug deal-turned-robbery.

Over the weekend, a father and his 3-year-old twin daughters died after he apparently filled their Mechanicsville house with carbon monoxide from a car and slit his daughters' throats.

Then, on Monday, police announced they were investigating the slaying of a Beaverdam woman inside her home. Police have arrested a boyfriend on charges of stealing her van.

Coming on the heels of the shooting death of a 17-year-old Lee-Davis High School student in December, it has been the deadliest stretch for Hanover since at least 1999.

Meadow Kelly, a Mechanicsville mother of three children — one in elementary school, one in middle school and one in high school — said she has been thinking a lot about the homicides.

"I'm very concerned about it," she said. "I don't know why it's happening."

She said she has racked her brain, looking for reasons why each death happened. "I'm very, very sad, especially about the twin girls," she said.

County Administrator Cecil R. "Rhu" Harris said, "It's very sad to see young lives lost in any circumstances and particularly in these kinds of situations."

Hanover's elected leaders lauded the county Sheriff's Office for its response in one of the deadliest periods in county history, pointing to quick arrests, and to community members for providing emotional support to grieving families.

Mechanicsville District Supervisor W. Canova Peterson said the four homicides are "not uncommon to any community."

"The only thing unusual about it for us is they happened in such a short period of time," Peterson said.

Hanover Sgt. Chris Whitley said investigators have been clocking 24-hour days to solve the rash of homicide cases. "It has been exhausting, but that's what our people sign up for," Whitley said. 

Whitley cited the investigation of the death of 16-year-old Brett A. Wells as one that required around-the-clock work. "Within 48 hours we had made arrests of three people on murder and other charges," Whitley said.

For the parents of teenagers, the Jan. 21 death of Wells, along with the fatal Dec. 17 shooting of Lee-Davis senior Jyreffe P. Clark, raised more questions than they answered. Some Hanover parents said they took the opportunity to talk with their children about being vigilant about their safety.

Kelly said she cautioned her children, especially her 18-year-old son, to be more careful and cautious about their surroundings. "We've talked a lot about it," Kelly said.

Jennifer Curran said the homicides shook her and her neighbors. Each new incident of violence is discussed at the bus stop in the morning, she said.

"The fact that it's come to Hanover is a wakeup call that we're not invincible," Curran said.

Discussing the deaths is particularly upsetting for her daughter, who worries about violence coming into the schools. Curran says she tries to reassure her children.

But she said she also reinforces the reasons she stays involved in their lives. She wants to know what kind of people they are hanging out with, who their friends are, what their reputations are and where they are going. "If I don't like it, if I get a bad vibe, you're not going," Curran said.

Officials say the county will continue to be known as a strong community, not a dangerous one.

"Every community, from time to time, has tragedies befall them, and it is the way that they respond to those tragedies that defines who they are," said Chickahominy District Supervisor Angela Kelly-Wiecek. "That will continue to be the case with Hanover."

Hanover responded to the death of the twins by blanketing the steps of their father's modest brick ranch home with stuffed animals and tying balloons to the stair rails.

Tuesday night, family members, friends and neighbors bearing hundreds of pink balloons gathered for a vigil at the home. Wynbrook Lane was lined with parked cars and pickup trucks as people walked up from blocks away.

The balloons swayed and candles guttered in the mild winter breeze, while a few of those who came shared tearful recollections of the twins, Caroline and Madison King.

Dionna Kelleher, mother of three, said she had known the twins' mother, Kristina Hooper, for 25 years. She had visited the twins in the hospital after they were born prematurely and were fighting for their lives.

Her youngest child, daughter Jade, 6, passed her clothes along to the twins. "I remember them wearing her ballerina outfits, dancing around the living room," Kelleher said.

"They're in a perfect world now," she said.

Scott Holt, who lives one street over, stood at the edge of the crowd of more than 100, holding his own 3-year-old daughter, Olivia, in his arms.

"I didn't know them, but when I'd drive by I'd see the twins playing in the yard," Holt said. "I saw them with their father, playing on the swings."

He shook his head. "I just don't see how life could get that bad."

Deb Harper was there with her 4-year-old twin sons, Brydon and Jackson. She is head of Richmond Area Mothers of Multiples, a support group for "mothers of twins to quads," she said.

She said she hopes her organization can offer assistance to the mother of the twins. "Whatever she needs," Harper said, "we would like to help her."