Stony Point tragedy: Four dead in apparent murder-suicide
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Police expect the investigation into the murder suicide at 3880 Stony Point Road to last all day.Courteney Stuart -
Friends commented on Beth Walton's inner radiance weeks before her death.Facebook -
Lily Romando updated her Facebook profile picture the day of her death.Facebook -
According to the Facebook time stamp, Noah Romando also updated his profile picture less than four hours before his death, and friends made Tarzan jokes in comments under the photo of the 19-year-old swinging on a rope.Facebook
Yellow police tape surrounds the tidy home at 3880 Stony Point Road across the street from Stony Point Elementary School where, police say, a mother and her three children were killed last night in what police are calling a murder-suicide.
The deceased are 49-year-old Elizabeth Walton and her children, 19-year-old Noah Philip Romando, Lily Catherine Romando, and Andrew Ross Romando, both described by police only as "juveniles." According to Albemarle Police spokesperson Darrell Byers, three individuals were found dead in the home soon after a 911 call was placed at 11:43pm; a fourth was transported to UVA hospital and died of the injuries. A gun was involved in the incident, according to a police release, and Byers says that the transported victim is not the person suspected of committing the killings.
Walton, an ad exec at C-VILLE Weekly, worked under the name Beth McLaughlin. A post on the C-VILLE site this afternoon reveals she married Don Walton in June, two months after she started work for the paper, but kept her previous name professionally.
Facebook photos of the deceased show Walton as a a slim, smiling woman whose friends comment on her outer and inner glow.
"As usual, you look amazing! And happiness radiates from you!" writes one friend on a photo posted on August 5. By Wednesday afternoon, a memorial Facebook page for Lily Romando had drawn nearly 200 followers.
Police have not released details of the crime, but say they believe the killer is among the deceased. The investigation is ongoing, as neighbors struggle to believe the tragedy occurred so close to home.
"They were mowing the lawn yesterday," says neighbor Gilbert Scruggs, sitting on a tractor in his driveway and gesturing to the sprawling back yard where a soccer goal sits just beyond the police line.
According to Scruggs, Walton was renting the 960-square-foot single-story three bedroom house. The owner of that property, Margaret Fisk, could not be reached by posting time.
15 comments
A commenter at cvillenews is saying that the Mom killed her 3 children and then herself
What a tragedy !
Beth and I had just made plans to meet up soon in Charlottesville. I don't believe this. I don't believe she hurt her children.
@Nancy, I have no idea who killed who, another commenter at ch29 says it was the son who was the shooter. Soon we will know, until then what we do know is it is a terrible tragedy that will touch many lives.
Beth taught pre-kindergarten at Charlottesville Catholic...my daughter was in her class. She was the kindest person who loved her students. I can't believe she would ever harm a child. The real tragedy is that a beautiful family is gone for no reason. Let the facts come out before speculating on who was the killer.
I knew Andrew Romando, he was a great person.... R.I.P
She was a wonderful teacher at Charlottesville Catholic school. Do not guess who killed them. Wait until the police release the information. All four of them were way too wonderful people to be labeled as murderer before proven guilty. They were wonderful people and the City of Charlottesville will not be the same without them.
It was the eldest son that shot and killed the rest of the family. It's a tragedy all the way around, and more information would help to avert situations like this in the future.
There had to be some signs leading up to it, although I cannot even imagine what he had to be going through inside to resort to this. Tragic for all. Many prayers.
Why are people so quick to assumption?
Where is the husband ?
The Step-dad works out of town. Their father lives in Ch'ville.
Why do we need to know who killed who...
Lets just pray from them and their family and the loss to the community.
OK, time for some more info on this now pls...
This could be a tough one to get more information on--most of the people who could tell the story are gone. Perhaps the step-dad or dad know what this might be about, but even they may not. The family is connected to the community in numerous ways, including a connection with C-ville weekly and tangentially the Hook(maybe very tangentially or even not at all--don't know details of ownership structure and firewall between them,) which may make for even more attention to sensitivity in the journalistic investigation than there would already be.
It is tough to imagine how this played out--terribly sad
the cops know, i doubt it was too hard to figure out. they can easily survey the scene and learn who and how this was done.
Police have named Noah Philip Romando as the suspect. The Hook's latest story is here: http://bit.ly/SZa3Sy. --ed