Fairfax County police are dealing with an unusual increase in murder-suicides this year, a tragic and unpredictable problem in an area where homicide remains rare.
A trio of incidents in which a man killed someone he was close to and then himself have shaken the county in recent months. Last year, the county saw only one murder-suicide, according to information provided by the Fairfax County Police Department. The year before, there were none.
Police point to difficulties in preventing the incidents.
“It is extremely difficult to predict when and where and how a homicide is going to occur,” said police spokesman Lt. Richard Perez.
On Nov. 25, police found 52-year-old Virginia Run Elementary School teacher Julie Mansfield Adams stabbed to death in her home near Falls Church, apparently by a man who later killed himself in West Virginia. Earlier that month, the bodies of a man and woman were found with gunshot wounds at their Kingstowne home. Police later ruled that husband Samuel Appiah-Kusi, 54, had killed his wife Monica Telfer, 45.
This summer, George Mason University law professor and former U.S. Commerce Department official William Lash III, 45, reportedly shot and killed his 12-year-old son and himself in their McLean home.
Police had little warning of trouble. There was only one call to the police regarding a domestic issue at the three addresses where the bodies were found. That call, involving the Falls Church residence in 2003, did not result in charges, Perez said.
In general, there are warning signs that a person may be in danger prior to a domestic-related homicide, said Kate McCord, public awareness manager for the Richmond-based Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance. They include previous 911 calls or reports of abuse, threats of homicide or suicide, or threats to harm children or pets, she said.
“Those are all red flags for heightened lethality,” McCord said.
