John Jefferson
Inset: Alyssa Venable (Steuben County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The scene where Venable crashed her car and was arrested (New York State Police).
A Virginia woman who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting her three roommates told a friend “she hurt people” and left instructions to care for her dog before getting arrested days later after a high-speed police chase and crash in New York.
Alyssa Jane Venable, 23, pleaded guilty in the deaths of 60-year-old Gregory Scott Powell, 65-year-old Carol Anne Reese, and 77-year-old Robert John McGuire, online court records show.
As Law&Crime has previously reported, the triple murder came to light about 10 p.m. on June 4 when a roommate returned to a home in Spotsylvania, found a body and called 911. There, deputies found the victims dead, and Venable’s car gone.
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“Upon arrival, deputies made entry into the residence to discover three adults (two men and one woman) deceased from upper body trauma. After further investigation and evidence collection, it was discovered that a roommate (Venable) had committed this heinous crime,” the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office said.
Citing search warrant documents, local ABC affiliate WJLA reported about the tips that came in after the bloodshed and pointed to Venable. When deputies got the initial call, they got a second call from someone who knew the defendant, saying she dropped her dog off with him and was “acting strange,” the outlet reported. At about the same time, a friend of the defendant reported to deputies that Venable told her “she hurt people.” The friend also told investigators about a note Venable left saying she was going to kill herself in California. The friend added that Venable left cash, instructions on how to care for her dog, and account passwords.
Venable was caught days later in her 2009 Honda Civic on I-86 in the Empire State. She ignored an attempted traffic stop, drove at 100 mph, and ultimately crashed her car when troopers successfully took out her tires using a tire-deflating device.
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Venable has a criminal history dating back to March 2019 that includes charges for property damage, petit larceny, reckless driving, and assault and battery. Her grandmother indicated in a local news interview when the defendant was on the run that she believed her granddaughter could also be a danger to herself and is someone in “desperate need for help.”
One neighbor reacted to the news of a triple murder investigation by telling local CBS affiliate WTVR that he was “blown away” by it.
“I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ … like, ‘Dude, what is all this about?”” the neighbor added.
Another neighbor told local NBC affiliate WWBT that she was heading to work when she saw investigators’ squad cars outside the crime scene with their lights flashing.
“Makes you wonder how somebody could do something like that,” the neighbor said.
Her sentencing hearing is set for April 28.
Matt Naham and Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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