Hook cover image.

Since their daughter’s mysterious death on a winding country road, the parents of Justine Swartz Abshire have made no secret about who they believe is responsible. But four years after the lifeless body of the 27-year-old school-teacher was discovered following what was initially reported as a hit-and-run accident, there’s been no arrest in the case.

That hasn’t stopped the woman’s parents from suggesting she was more likely beaten to death than hit by a car— and filing a $5 million civil suit alleging not only that Justine’s husband Eric Abshire is a killer but that he didn’t act alone.

While Abshire has long maintained his innocence and vowed to help catch his wife’s killer or killers, a bankruptcy filing shows that contrary to previous public statements that he wouldn’t attempt to financially benefit from his wife’s death, Eric Abshire did, in fact, go after some of the estimated $1.3 million in insurance money.

“His version of events is implausible,” says Justine’s father Steve Swartz, vowing to avenge his daughter’s death through any legal means available.

“The battle lines are drawn,” says Swartz.

Multiple conspirators

If Eric Abshire has long been the focus of the police investigation— and the Swartzes suspicion—the recent lawsuit offers some further insight into what Steve and Heidi Swartz believe actually happened to their daughter. In the suit, they accuse not only Eric, but also his brother, Jesse Abshire, the mother of two of Eric’s children, his cousin, and six unnamed co-conspirators.

The four individuals named “remain at the center” of a criminal investigation, the suit alleges, because they conspired with the unnamed individuals that caused the death of Justine Abshire via “unlawful actions.”

What were those unlawful actions? The suit doesn’t say, and while Eric Abshire, who appears to be representing himself, has not returned a reporter’s repeated calls for comment for this story, he has denied culpability in the past, and the attorney for brother Jesse Abshire calls the suit “without merit.”

“There are no allegations whatsoever,” says Jesse Abshire’s attorney, Lloyd Snook, essentially accusing the Swartzes of a fishing expedition.

“They filed the suit hoping that something might come out that they might be able to base their suit on,” says Snook.

But according to legal analyst David Heilberg, such vagueness is typical in the early stages of a civil action. He says plaintiffs typically “hold their cards close” early in the litigation process to avoid giving defendants a chance to craft a defense prior to depositions, in which they give sworn statements.

Eric Abshire, in white sweater, and his brother Jesse Abshire, to his left, are both targeted in the wrongful death suit.
FILE PHOTO BY JAY KUHLMANN

Indeed, on their lawyer’s advice, the Swartzes decline to share all their reasons for targeting as many as nine people in addition to the supposedly grieving widower. With painful clarity, however, they do share recollections of the days surrounding daughter’s death.

Devastation
It was the telephone call that every parent dreads. At 3am on the morning of November 3, 2006, the Swartzes were awakened at home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Their elder daughter, a kindergarten teacher at Culpeper’s Emerald Hill Elementary School who was working toward her master’s degree at UVA, was dead, the caller told them, hit by a car sometime after midnight. (more)

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October 28 Hook cover image.

It seems like a simple question: How much will taxpayers pay to make Biscuit Run a Virginia park?

Nearly a year after the state’s under-the-wire purchase of the 1,200-acre tract that had been slated to become Albemarle’s biggest subdivision, the would-be developers and state officials appear to have successfully deflected inquiries about the value of tax credits that made the deal possible— even as the Virginia state senator who penned the legislation establishing such tax credits now calls the secrecy “disturbing.”

Meanwhile, tranquility-quashing plans remain to build 100 houses within the new park’s perimeter.

Such revelations come as sources point out that the 850-acre Panorama Farms– a recreation-ready tract owned by a family eager to protect scenic terrain from development– was passed over for the honor of becoming Albemarle County’s state park. Yet, it’s the secrecy surrounding the Biscuit Run deal that has drawn fire from both sides of the political spectrum.

“It ought to be transparent,” says State Senator Creigh Deeds, who served as patron of the land preservation tax credit system that became law a decade ago. “People ought to be able to judge for themselves whether its a good deal or not.”

In a rare occurrence during politically polarized times, conservative radio show host and former Republican city councilor Rob Schilling agrees.

“It would be one thing if the developers just decided they weren’t going to build it,” says Schilling. “But for the state to get involved, and then start wheeling and dealing behind closed doors? I don’t think that makes many people very happy.”

***

A carved wood sign marks the entrance to Biscuit Run, which for decades was the site of a weekly get-together that brought artists, musicians and others to David and Elizabeth Breeden’s home.
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

Located south of Charlottesville, sprawling Biscuit Run farm was purchased in 2005 for a record-shattering $46.2 million by a group of investors called themselves Forest Lodge LLC. Publicly headed by developer Hunter Craig and including Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw and at least one member of the Dave Matthews Band, the team justified the gasp-worthy price by the promise of a 3,100-home development inside the County’s designated growth area. The plan promised— in addition to giving the developers a return— to give Albemarle $41 million in proffers (deal sweeteners such as money and roads) in addition to a 400-acre park and a permanently expanded tax base.

But as the real estate market tanked in the years following the purchase, Forest Lodge found itself shouldering an immense debt load and unable to move forward on the development. By November 2009, Bluefield, West Virginia-based First Community Bancshares alerted shareholders that the Biscuit Run loan was in “early stage delinquency” but assured that it was “adequately secured” by the large tract of undeveloped land.

Were wealthy developers about to get bailed out by high-level politicians? (more)

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The Hook has new details on the VQR tragedy.PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

“911,” the dispatcher says.

“Hi,” says the male caller. “You need to send a police car and an ambulance to the dirt road that runs off Water Street.”

“Okay, what’s going on?”

“Ah, there’s been a shooting,” says the caller.

“Okay, how many people are shot?”

The caller hangs up. The dispatcher calls back, gets an answering machine.

“Hi, this is Kevin Morrissey. Leave a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can…”

–Transcript of Kevin Morrissey’s July 30, 2010 911 phone call.

◊◊◊

Nearly three months after Virginia Quarterly Review managing editor Kevin Morrissey took his own life, stories are still being penned about what the tragedy revealed about the troubled inner workings of the award-winning magazine: charges of favoritism, spiraling spending, poisonous tensions between staff members, and the hot-button suggestion that the magazine’s editor, Ted Genoways, bullied the 52-year-old Morrissey in the last few weeks of his life.

Documents recently made available to the Hook show that Genoways was burning through VQR’s endowment, hiring an intern for a key office role without going through the usual state procedures, and— perhaps most surprisingly— planning to take advantage of the intern-turned-employee’s million-dollar-plus donation to another program to save his own struggling enterprise.

Meanwhile, as the official UVA investigation into the management of the magazine continues (web update: the report was issued shortly after this story was posted), two recent stories have taken a different tack: casting Genoways, not Morrissey, as the hapless victim of a reckless rush to judgment.

Genoways unbound

Since Morrissey’s July 30 suicide, Genoways has declined interviews (though a long email he wrote to colleagues two days after Morrissey’s death was obtained by the Hook), citing the confidentiality inherent in personnel matters and referring (more)

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Kuttner (fourth from left) and team designed a car weighing 830 pounds.
YOUTUBE VIDEO

Oliver Kuttner, the Charlottesville real estate developer turned automotive developer, has won the $5 million top prize in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, it was announced Thursday morning, September 16. His Edison2 team’s winning vehicle, a four-seater called the Very Light Car, reportedly gets 102 miles per gallon of fuel and could, Kuttner hopes, reshape the automotive industry.

Kuttner’s quest was the subject of the Hook’s June 17 cover story.

Accolades have begun streaming in. There was a celebratory party hosted by Arianna Huffington, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at the September 16 victory ceremony held outside the Historical Society of Washington D.C., and Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello quickly issued a congratulatory statement pointing out that he’s made numerous visits to Kuttner’s Lynchburg laboratory.

Two years ago, Kuttner helped embarrass local water officials— who were busily portraying dredging their main reservoir as impossibly expensive— by offering to dredge for $30 million, a fraction of the quarter-billion one consultant claimed it might cost. “It would be a dream job,” Kuttner said. “I’ll make so much money.”

Kuttner gets his flesh pressed by Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello.
PERRIELLO PHOTO

His brazen form of entrepreneurship ran him afoul of Charlottesville officials years earlier. He’s the guy who embedded two stone arches salvaged from an old gothic church into the side of the former Woolworth’s building. The City made him remove the arches.

In a 2005 Hook cover story, Kuttner— after sifting through a stack of stop-work orders and other official rebukes— explained that Charlottesville red-tape had pushed him to Lynchburg, where an allegedly more business-friendly environment would smile upon his visions for developing property and, as it turned out, cars.

If officials once fled any association with Kuttner, now they clamor to be associated with the conquering visionary.

Matt Lauer (left) introduces Kuttner (third from right) to the world on the September 17 Today show.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

“Every time I visited their lab,” Congressman Perriello says in a statement, “I felt like a witness to history and to a re-imagining of the automobile for a new century. From the scientists to the machinists, they are blazing a path towards the efficient, affordable, American-made technology of tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Mark Warner also showed up for the award ceremony and made some gushing statements of his own:

“Edison2’s innovations really represent a home run— not just for Virginia, but for the whole country,” said Senator Warner.

Politicians aren’t the only ones now clamoring for Kuttner. The day after the announcement, he appeared live on the NBC Today show as well as on National Public Radio. But it’s not all champagne and interviews. On Monday, September 20, Kuttner appeared in City Hall, urging City Council to give dredging a try.

“I’ve been thinking about it all weekend,” says Kuttner. “It’s liable to save the citizens over $100 million.”

So how does he deal with his sudden popularity and the fact that he’s been proposing visionary ideas in Charlottesville for several years without much appreciation.

“Some people understand things sooner,” says Kuttner, “and some people understand things later.”

One of the “sooner” folks is Sierra Club Chairman Carl Pope, who posted a video of Kuttner’s X Prize victory speech on his personal blog and called him “2010’s inspiration.”

While Kuttner says Pope’s endorsement has been the “coolest thing” coming out of the X Prize, he’s not slowing down to bask in praise no matter how glowing. By Monday morning, September 20, he was back in the Edison2 workshop in Lynchburg, where the team is now hard at work on a next generation edition of the Very Light Car, this time with an electric engine and assistance from fellow X Prize competitors Li-ion Motors (winner of one of the two-seater X Prize categories) and a firm called TW4XP.

“They have a lot of experience,” says Kuttner.

Also in the cards: raising an additional $3 million to take the company forward. Kuttner declines to reveal the exact amount already invested in Edison2, which he says is now valued at $15 million. But after the next round of fundraising, he says he believes that value will double and continue to rise.

“In a couple of years, this is a couple hundred million-dollar company,” says Kuttner, who is “strongly considering” expanding the company into Campbell County, just outside Lynchburg, or to Michigan.

The economic downturn has been bad for most businesses, but for a start-up car company like Edison2, Kuttner says, there are heretofore unseen opportunities.

“Right now, you can buy machines for $300,000 which, if new, would cost millions and millions of dollars,” he says. “During this crazy time you can do things which you’ll never be able to do again in our lifetime.”

Kuttner’s victory has also spurred environmental groups to action. The L.A. Times reports that in the wake of the X Prize, 19 such groups have joined together to push the government to adopt a 60-mpg standard by 2025. Currently, the 2016 standard is 34.1 mpg.

As for when Very Light Cars might hit the street, Kuttner is cautious about making promises to future buyers and even his own investors.

“We still don’t know our path forward,” he says. But he is certain the car he believes is the best solution for this country’s energy woes won’t hit a dead end.

“We’re not wrong about this,” he says. “We’ve got this tiger by the tail.”

—with additional, on-the-scene reporting by Courteney Stuart

#

–updated 11:19am Friday (60 mpg standard)

—updated 2:35pm  Thursday (corrects car weight)

–updated 10:46am Friday (with Today show photo and Mark Warner quote)

–updated 2:12pm, Monday (with a little more about Kuttner’s backstory)

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John Kluge and his wife, Maria Tussi Kuttner Kluge.
UVA PHOTO

In a life that continued for two and a half decades past his obituary interview with the New York Times, media-shy billionaire John Kluge would endure controversy in the form of a socialite ex-wife and an illegal hunting operation; and even his grandest business deal would incite some ire. But for the past 20 years, the biggest headlines John Werner Kluge made were the ones noting his eye-popping donations.

The billionaire whose TV stations became the Fox network and whose money helped shape Albemarle County, died peacefully on the night of Tuesday, September 7, two weeks shy of his 96th birthday, sources say. At the time of his death, Forbes listed Kluge as the 35th-richest American, with a total fortune— even after hundreds of millions in donations— of $6.5 billion.

“He was a wonderful man,” says brother-in-law Ludwig Kuttner. “He had a great career. He was very charitable. He was great to the community and to education.”

Education would shape Kluge’s life. That, and deal-making.

A fortune in the making
According to the German-American Hall of Fame, Kluge came to America in 1922, when he must have (more)

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September 2, 2010 cover image.
HOOK GRAPHIC

The way that a pilot named Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger saved all 155 onboard his disabled commercial jetliner was the feel-good story of 2009. Locally, however, the “Miracle on the Hudson” helped launch some bad feelings in the Forest Lakes neighborhood.

Since the incident and following a series of Congressional hearings and the release of previously confidential FAA data on bird strikes, thousands of the geese across the country have been rounded up and slaughtered as part of the airline industry’s efforts to make flying safer.

But the mass killing has outraged bird lovers and ruffled feathers at Forest Lakes where 90 Canada Geese were rounded up and killed in early July. Some Forest Lakes residents have come forward to say that despite their neighborhood’s proximity to the airport, Forest Lakes geese actually pose little risk to planes.

“It’s hypocrisy, and it’s all about money,” says resident Arthur Epp, who lives in a house overlooking a lake where the geese once swam and raised their young.

While federal officials say the geese killing will bolster the safety of the flying public, Epp says there’s plenty of data to back up the claim that the airline industry is most concerned with making people think they’re safer.

Who is right?

(more)

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What happened at the VQR?

HOOK’s 8/19  COVER

On John Casteen’s last official day in office as the president of the University of Virginia, a tragic story, one fit for the pages of the award-winning literary journal that he nurtured, began to unfold.

That Friday, July 30, the managing editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, 52-year-old Kevin Morrissey, took his own life. Since then, UVA has shrouded VQR behind a wall of silence, changing the office locks, launching an audit, and even routing all incoming telephone calls to the University’s public relations office.

A Hook investigation reveals that behind the staid, Thomas Jefferson-designed exterior of VQR’s headquarters swirl allegations of financial recklessness, conflicts of interest, and a bizarre pattern of management-by-email that drove a staffer to quit. Some say there was also a pattern of bullying that may have pushed a fragile man into tragic oblivion.

What’s more, according to a former VQR employee, University officials have known about some of the personnel problems for at least five years.

An ambitious editor

A group called the Workplace Bullying Institute minces no words about the situation, suggesting that Morrissey’s boss, VQR editor Theodore H. “Ted” Genoways was a bully and that UVA was “unresponsive.” But if Genoways has been cast as the problem, he also appears to be a key source of VQR’s success.

Hired in 2003 at the tender age of 31, Genoways arrived with high hopes and high praise including President John Casteen’s enthusiasm for his “energetic intelligence and visionary thinking.”

He transformed VQR— long known for publishing poetry and short stories on black & white pages— with punchy, magazine-style theme issues and loads of full-color photography. Along with the new look came an expanded mission including hard-hitting non-fiction such as Toni Morrison’s account of the long road to racial integration and an on-the-ground exposé on the capture of Saddam Hussein. Just three years after Genoways arrived, Casteen’s enthusiasm seemed justified as the journal won two National Magazine Awards, bringing new prominence to VQR, and to its young editor.

For Maria Morrissey, however, the older sister of the late Kevin Morrissey, the success also brought heartache. Based on information she gathered from VQR staffers, University officials, police, and her brother’s own notes, Maria Morrissey portrays Genoways as someone who created a work environment so hostile it became unbearable.

“Our family is convinced,” she says, “by all that we have learned since Kevin’s death that, were it not for Genoways’ relentless bullying, Kevin would be alive today.” (more)

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Some people know him as a quiet man who walks his dog along East Market Street. Some people know him as a boisterous preservationist for the Woolen Mills neighborhood. Some know him for his recent service on the Charlottesville Planning Commission. And some haven’t met him but have discovered his photo-driven blog which shows a keen eye for detail and amazing interplays of light. Thus the name: Black & White.

Bill Emory has put the focus on little noticed corners of Charlottesville and other places, so we this week we thought we’d put the focus on his work. —Hawes Spencer

(more)

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“I hope more people get to know how much fun ice skating and hockey are, and will participate in the sports,” says Roberta Williamson, left, with new owner Mark Brown, his daughters, Annabel and Caroline, and Bruce Williamson.
PHOTO BY TOM DALY

Local ice skaters, meet your unlikely hero: 29-year-old businessman Mark Brown. On Friday, July 16, he purchased the struggling Charlottesville Ice Park to end months of fear and speculation that the massive building, widely seen as a Downtown nexus, might— like the controversy-stained shell of a hotel nearby— stand empty for years.

The purchase comes two weeks after skating stopped and at a price of $3 million, more than a million less than the asking price and about a million below the 1996 development price.

“I hadn’t really thought about it when the sale was announced in February,” admits Brown, a Kentucky native and 2002 UVA grad who grew concerned when, weeks after the owners announced the June 30 closure in April, no buyers had come forward. Part of the problem, then Ice Park co-owner Roberta Williamson said, was in the ice rink’s bank statements: she estimated the business she and her ex-husband Bruce Williamson and two other investors purchased for $3.1 million in 2003 had been losing as much as $70,000 per year, a deficit she said they simply could not sustain. (The Williamsons bought out their partners sometime after the sale.)

Although Brown, a father of two, had never (more)

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Clean-up following a storm strenuous– and dangerous– work. CLICK FOR SLIDESHOW.
PHOTO BY TOM DALY

As the stormclouds rolled in late on Thursday afternoon, June 24, commuters finishing work for the day may have planned on a wet ride home. They got a lot more than that as an intense three-minute storm commonly known as a “microburst” turned what should have been short drives into harrowing hours-long affairs plagued by downed trees and power lines. Unlike the much smaller June 3 microburst, however, most commuters’ nightmares didn’t end at their driveways, as 45,000 Dominion Virginia customers were rendered powerless by the storm, with some homes in the dark for as long as four days.

“This was worse than Hurricane Isabel,” says Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner, noting that his department responded to 31 homes struck by trees– four more than during the remnants of Hurricane Isabel, a day-long storm event in September 2003. In the urban ring, another 15-20 houses were hit by trees, says Albemarle County Fire Chief Dan Eggleston, noting that the worst hit neighborhood was Bennington Road just off Barracks Road near Georgetown Road. (more)

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The signs drew honks of support and occasional jeers from passing drivers.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

A group of local citizens staged a peaceful Sunday afternoon protest at one of Charlottesville’s BP-branded fuel stations. The group, numbering over 20 at the height of the Memorial Day event, lamented the disaster caused by BP, as crude oil continues to spew from a broken well that the mammoth company was operating in the Gulf of Mexico.

Organized by musician Brandon Collins, one half of the brash acoustic duo B.C., the protest took place at the Everyday Café at 241 Rolkin Court atop Pantops mountain.

Inside the convenience store, a clerk gave the phone number for a district manager for station owner Virginia Oil Company, but he declined comment. Outside, a customer who would give his name only as Gary took a dim view of BP— and of the protest.

“It won’t do a bit of good,” said Gary, noting that (more)

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The mysterious third-floor Dome Room will finally be open to the public on June 11.
PHOTO BY TOM DALY

Monticello was designed for the pleasure and architectural curiosity of its owner, but as a new tour and exhibit will show, it was also designed for the enslaved workers who moved about the house relatively unseen, serving food, changing linens, and emptying chamber pots.

On Tuesday, May 25, Monticello boss Leslie Greene Bowman and staff gave the press a sneak peek at rooms that have never been opened to the public. It’s all part of a new “behind the scenes” tour that will launch June 11, accompanied by a new exhibit in the cellar level called “Crossroads,” all to shed light on the intersections between Jefferson, his family and guests, and the enslaved workers.

“We’re trying to make Monticello a more lively and entertaining experience,” says Susan Stein, Monticello’s senior curator.

Indeed, during Tuesday’s tour, reporters were led through the cellar complex to the to-be-restored “office,” a sort of staging area where food was carried before being served upstairs in the dining room.

For an additional $15 over the base tour rate of $22, visitors will now be able to climb as many as 75  very steep and narrow stairs to the third floor— definitely not recommended for the frail, the obese, or those carrying small children. The expanded tour opens the second and third floors, where various guest and family rooms are on display, as well as the restored Dome Room.

On the second floor, (more)

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George Huguely on the field and behind bars. What compelled his rage?
UVA SPORTS/POLICE PHOTO

Papa loved mama
Mama loved men
Mama’s in the graveyard
Papa’s in the pen

–Carl Sandburg

Why would a college athlete, a young man from a prominent family with everything going for him, attack and possibly— as police allege– brutally murder his former girlfriend? As shock gives way to grief, questions about drugs and sanity invariably arise over UVA student George Wesley Huguely V’s fatal altercation with 22-year-old Yeardley Love . Although Huguely has several alcohol-fueled incidents in his past, two doctors say in recent interviews that it’s unlikely that intoxicants alone could drive someone to kill.

“If intoxicated, the risk will increase,” says Dr. Bankole Johnson, (more)

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Yeardley Love and George Huguely.
UVA SPORTS

Imagine the families. Chevy Chase, Maryland and Cockeysville, Maryland are only about an hour apart. George Huguely and Yeardley Love had been dating for some time. The families had to have met, right?

Now, in the wake of Yeardley Love’s death— allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend, George Huguely— imagine the interactions between the two families. If it hasn’t happened already, at some point, it will. They’ll cross paths, and familiar looks will be replaced with downward gazes, stifled emotions. Should they speak, think of the fumbled words, the tears, the heads shaking.

The Huguely family would likely want to apologize, and the Love family might want to forgive. But truthfully, nobody could (more)

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Defense attorney Francis McQ. Lawrence, with partner Rhonda Quagliana, faces the media horde after client George Huguely’s first court appearance. PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

George Wesley Huguely V is not the first UVA student to be charged with murder.

In 2003, Andrew Alston was charged with second degree murder for stabbing local firefighter Walker Sisk to death on the Corner, and many were stunned when a jury sentenced him to three years for voluntary manslaughter.

So what can a shocked community expect when Huguely eventually comes to trial?

The Hook checked with a couple of top gun defense lawyers to see how they’d defend the young man who made a statement to police that he’d had an altercation with victim Yeardley Love, kicked her door in, and shook her so hard that her head repeatedly hit a wall, and then took her laptop when he left.

Rule number one: Hire the best lawyer money can buy. (more)

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Alcohol and violence were factors in George W. Huguely V’s 2008 arrest in Lexington.
ROCKBRIDGE REGIONAL JAIL

A red-stained UVA lacrosse t-shirt and a letter to Yeardley Love are among the items taken by Charlottesville police from accused killer George Huguely’s apartment on May 3.

Police removed two white Apple laptop computers, a green spiral notebook, two white socks, a bathroom rug, a shower curtain, the apartment’s entryway rug, a pair of blue cargo shorts, and a Bobby Jones brand polo shirt, according to the Daily Progress.

The search warrant in the Charlottesville Circuit Court clerk’s office is now sealed, as is the judge’s order to seal that and subsequent search warrants.

“My recollection is that [Albemarle] Judge [Cheryl] Higgins signed it,” says Paul Garrett, clerk of court. That now-secret order was requested by the commonwealth’s attorney, adds Garrett.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman did not (more)

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President John Casteen, Allen Groves, Patricia Lampkin, and Craig Littlepage.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

UVA President John Casteen deflected blame from the university by suggesting that a Rockbridge County court should have acted on the allegation that murder suspect George Wesley Huguely had earlier threatened to kill a Lexington police officer, but at the same press conference, Athletic Director Craig Littlepage admitted that he has yet to find out whether lacrosse coaches, including the head lacrosse coach knew about their player’s prior arrest.

“Nothing was reported to me,” said Littlepage, which prompted a New York Times reporter to press for clarification on whether that meant the coaches knew. “I can’t speak to what they had knowledge of,” Littlepage conceded.

It was the largest (more)

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Yeardley Love was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and the UVA women’s lacrosse team.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR/INSET PHOTO UVA SPORTS

On May 23, 22-year-old Yeardley Love should have had every right to be celebrating her college graduation with her family and friends, her sorority sisters in Kappa Alpha Theta, and her UVA women’s lacrosse teammates.

Instead, sometime before then, those who knew Love will gather for a funeral of the young woman whose friends have described her as an “angel” and who achieved her dream of joining the UVA women’s lacrosse team—- playing in 15 games this season— only to have her life ended in what now appears to be a terrifying act of violence.

“I remember when you were my counselor a few years ago, that smile was absolutely contagious,” wrote one poster on a memorial Facebook site, which had gathered more than 12,000 fans one day after her May 3 death.

“She was truly an angel on earth,” writes Jennifer Blair, who (more)

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Harrington’s t-shirt was found just three blocks from the site of Yeardley’s death.
GOOGLE MAP

Just three weeks after the father of murder victim Morgan Harrington spoke publicly of the need for safety in Charlottesville, UVA women’s lacrosse player Yeardley Love, another young woman with a promising future, is dead from what appears to be a homicide.

“I am so sick about this,” says Morgan’s mother, Gil Harrington. “It’s devastating.”

Morgan Harrington disappeared from outside a Metallica concert at UVA’s John Paul Jones Arena on October 17, and her remains were discovered January 26 on a remote area of a 740-acre farm in southern Albemarle County. No arrests have been made, and the Harringtons have repeatedly warned of what they believe to be a continued menace to women in Charlottesville.

“A killer walks among you,” Gil Harrington has said.

While the State Police spokesperson discounts the (more)

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Number 11, Huguely played his last home game May 1.
PHOTOS; UVA SPORTS, CPD

In 1912, George W. Huguely Sr. co-founded the building supply company that built Washington, D.C.; and four generations have been involved in that business, according to the company website. Nearly 100 years later, the fifth generation, George Wesley Huguely V, is accused of the brutal murder of his former girlfriend, Yeardley Love.

Huguely, 22, now held in Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, grew up in affluent Chevy Chase, Maryland, son of Marta Murphy and George Huguely IV. Huguely IV has been described as having real estate interests with a property on the Outer Banks of North Carolina as well as a $2.5 million home in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Huguely V attended the private, all-boys Landon School in Bethesda, where he (more)

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Huguely had only to travel next door to visit his former girlfriend, Yeardley Love, who lived in an annex behind this old house on 14th Street.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

“The door to Love’s bedroom had been forced open and had a hole in it that appeared to have been made by a fist.” “Hairs were visible in the hole.”

The chilling words appear in the affidavit for a warrant to search the apartment of University of Virginia men’s lacrosse player George Wesley Huguely V, the scion of the prominent Washington-area family who now stands accused of killing his former girlfriend, Yeardley Love, a noted UVA lacrosse player in her own right.

According to the affadavit, obtained from a Charlottesville court file, Love’s roommates discovered her early May 3 face down on her pillow in her bedroom at 222 14th Street. The affidavit notes that officers found the about-to-graduate young woman with chin scrapes, a large facial bruise, and an eye swollen shut— as she lay in (more)

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Lawrence begins unveiling a “not intended” defense for his client, right inset. Such strategy helped Chambers, left inset, in 1986.
PHOTO: LISA PROVENCE, REUTERS, CPD

The attorney for George Wesley Huguely V, the UVA lacrosse player who stands accused of killing a female lacrosse player, seems to be taking a cue from the the so-called 1986 Preppie murder. “Ms. [Yeardley] Love’s death,” said lawyer Fran Lawrence, “was not intended but an accident with a tragic outcome.”

Lawrence’s prepared statement came after a Tuesday morning, May 4 appearance in Charlottesville General District Court, where Lawrence declined to seek a bonded release for his high-profile client.

Twenty-four years ago, a similar tragic-accident line of reasoning may have been enough to sow doubt in the minds of New York jurors, who deadlocked for a reported nine days, before Preppie Killer Robert Chambers struck a deal to plea to an old burglary charge and a manslaughter rap for the strangling death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin.

In court Tuesday, Huguely appeared on video feed from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, where he has been held since Monday. He appeared in black and white prison garb and was asked no questions by judge Robert Downer or his lawyer. The judge set a June 10 date for setting a preliminary hearing.

A Hook reporter has seen a court document which alleges that Huguely admits swinging the victim’s neck and shaking it violently and pounding her head against a wall. Also in the court document was confirmation that Huguely and Love had a relationship which had ended.

Huguely’s parents sat in the back of the courtroom and left without comment to reporters. Lawrence was not immediately available for comment.

–last updated 11:41am Tuesday, May 4

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Police have arrested fourth year UVA lacrosse player George Huguely in the death of fellow student and women’s lacrosse player Yeardley Love.
PHOTO BY BOB

Police have arrested 22-year-old UVA men’s lacrosse player George Huguely and charged him with first degree murder in the death of Yeardley Love, a fellow UVA fourth year and a member of the women’s lacrosse team. Love was discovered in her apartment at 222 14th Street on May 3 at around 2:15am by one of her two roommates, who called 911.

Speaking at a press conference Monday afternoon, Police Chief Tim Longo says that while emergency responders initially believed they would be dealing with an alcohol overdose, upon arrival they realized the situation was more serious.

There was “obvious” trauma to Love’s body, Longo says, and efforts to revive her failed. Longo says he doesn’t believe a weapon was involved, and says a cause of death will be determined following an autopsy.

Love and Huguely had been in a relationship, Longo says, however the nature of that relationship and its status as of the fateful night are focal points of the investigation. Longo said he did not believe Huguely has a criminal record and says Love had not sought a restraining order against Huguely— nor had police been called to the apartment for previous domestic disturbances.

The crime has stunned the university community, which for the past week had been celebrating the men’s lacrosse team’s ACC Championship victory. (more)

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