The man charged with murdering his sister and suspected in the deaths of seven others found at his home last week has hired two Roanoke-based lawyers, Appomattox County Commonwealth’s Attorney Darrel Puckett said Wednesday. Christopher Speight has hired attorneys C.J. Covati and Neil Horn, Puckett said. Speight, 39, was arraigned last Friday morning on a single charge of first-degree murder in the death of his sister, Lauralee Sipe.

Karen, Jonathan and Emily Quarles were close and loving family members who cared deeply about others and touched many lives, friends and relatives said at yesterday’s memorial service at Lynchburg’s Heritage Baptist Church. The service was the last to honor the eight victims of last week’s mass slayings in Appomattox County. The three were killed along with Emily’s boyfriend, Ronald “Bo” Scruggs; her close friend Morgan Dobyns; Dobyn’s mother, Lauralee Sipe; Sipe’s husband, Dwayne Sipe; and their 4-year-old son, Joshua Sipe.

Family and friends remembered Dwayne and Lauralee Sipe and their young son, Joshua, as a fun-loving, happy family. Yesterday’s funeral at Heritage Baptist Church in Lynchburg was the second of four services scheduled for the eight victims of last week’s mass slayings in Appomattox County.

After service as a military helicopter pilot during the Cold War, getting shot at was not a new experience for Virginia State Police Sgt. Don Childs. But Childs admitted that when he took a job flying the state’s MedFlight helicopter, he didn’t expect to face the threat of small-arms fire very often. Last week, the state police helicopter he was flying took seven rounds from a high-powered rifle.

The first of several funerals for the victims of last week’s shootings in Appomattox County was held yesterday afternoon in Lynchburg under a shroud of fog and light rain. Morgan Dobyns, 15, was remembered during a private service at Heritage Funeral Service. The family requested the funeral be closed to the media, and no information about the service was released.

Dozens of law officers from 13 agencies spent last Tuesday night making sure the suspect in the Appomattox shootings could not get away. For those charged with preventing the escape of the man suspected in the killings of eight people, the darkness fueled tense moments. Deputies believed 39-year-old Christopher Speight had nothing left to lose and, in some ways, was better equipped than they were. He had a high-powered rifle, night-vision capabilities, body armor and the home-turf advantage.

Funerals for two of the eight victims of last week’s shooting rampage in Appomattox County are set for today—one a block from the county courthouse and the other at a Lynchburg funeral home. A funeral for Ronald I. “Bo” Scruggs II, 16, from Buckingham County and the boyfriend of fellow victim Emily Quarles, is scheduled for today at 2 p.m. at the Robinson Funeral Home on Court Street in Appomattox. The family has asked that any contributions be made to the Toga Fire Department, 1779 Mount Rush Highway, Dillwyn, VA 23936.

Only 5 miles of rolling Piedmont Virginia highways separate one of Christopher Bryan Speight’s first run-ins with authority and the discovery of a murderous rampage that took the lives of eight people last week on Snapps Mill Road. Over the course of the intervening 22 years, something changed. “What happened has to point to some dramatic mental difficulty that metamorphosed into something terrible, just built and built and then exploded,“ said Rob Pearson, who hired Speight some 15 years ago to keep the bar stocked at Charley’s, his Lynchburg restaurant.

Search inventories filed in Appomattox County Circuit Court detail a variety of guns and explosives investigators found on the property of Christopher B. Speight, 39, charged with first-degree murder in connection with one of Tuesday’s shootings in which eight people were killed.

An effort to check on missing loved ones apparently led to the death of a man and his daughter’s teenage boyfriend, two of eight victims in Tuesday’s mass shooting. Melissa Stallard, the sister of 43-year-old shooting victim Jonathan L. Quarles, said she learned details from an investigator of her brother’s killing, which came after he left home to find his wife and daughter.

A man being held in connection with the killings of eight people made a brief appearance in Appomattox County Circuit Court today.

A man and his daughter’s teenage boyfriend became victims in the Appomattox mass killings when they went to check on loved ones they suspected were at the gunman’s home.

Funeral services are being arranged for victims of the Appomattox County shooting. A Lynchburg service for victim Morgan L. Dobyns is scheduled for Sunday. Another service will be held for three members of the Sipe family—Lauralee, 38, Dwayne S., 38, and Joshua, 4, on Monday in Lynchburg. A separate service will be held Tuesday in Lynchburg for three members of the Quarles family—Jonathan L. and Karen, both 43, and Emily, 15.