ALEXANDRIA, VA. — A man who has been suspected of involvement in several murders has now been charged, including the long-time unsolved murder of the wife of the Sheriff of Alexandria.
The Alexandria Police Department has charged Charles Severance in the homicides of Ruthanne Lodato, Ron Kirby, and Nancy Dunning. He has been indicted on the following charges related to the three investigations:
• Nancy Dunning Case: First Degree Murder and Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony
• Ron Kirby Case: Capital Murder, Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony, Possession of a Firearm by a Felon
• Ruthanne Lodato Case: Capital Murder, two counts of Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony, Possession of a Firearm by a Felon, and Malicious Wounding
This has been a complex and time-consuming investigation that has spanned almost 11 years. The Alexandria Police Department would like to thank the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Virginia State Police, and area law enforcement agencies for their assistance.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (WJLA) – After months of investigation, a 53-year-old former Alexandria resident with a history of erratic behavior was charged Monday in the shooting deaths of a sheriff’s wife, a transportation planner and a music teacher, killings that began in 2003 and alarmed city residents by their seemingly random nature.
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Charles Severance - Charles Severance (left) and the three Alexandria murder victims. (Photos: AP/WTOP)
Charles Severance, who is being held in Loudoun County awaiting trial on an unrelated gun charge, used to live in Alexandria. He was a fringe candidate for political office, noted for bizarre behavior at political forums including charging at an incumbent congressman with a flagpole.
An Alexandria grand jury indicted Severance in the 2003 slaying of Nancy Dunning; the November 2013 shooting of transportation planner Ronald Kirby; and the February 2014 shooting of music teacher Ruthanne Lodato. All three were shot in their homes at close range in the middle of the day.
“We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook said at an afternoon news conference that aired live on NewsChannel 8. “I am confident that the suspect Charles Severance is the suspect that we have been looking for almost 11 years.”
While two of the murder charges could carry the death penalty, the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office said it did not plan to pursue a death sentence. That means that the maximum potential sentence is life in prison.
Liz Dunning, daughter of Nancy Dunning, was among several family members who attended Monday’s police news conference. She thanked police for their work in a statement she read as she left police headquarters. “While nothing can bring her back, I hope that today’s indictment is the beginning of a process that will offer our family and the other affected families some small amount of closure,” she said.
Nancy Dunning, a well-known real estate agent in the city, was the wife of then-Sheriff James Dunning. He died in 2012, and at the time of his death had never been cleared as a suspect in his wife’s murder.
Cook defended his department’s work on the Dunning case over the last 11 years during the news conference.
“We have to look at everyone,” Cook said. “We never arrested James Dunning because we never had evidence that James Dunning committed a homicide.”
Cook declined to speculate on a motive for the killings, saying “I can’t get into the mentality of Mr. Severance.” He deflected questions about Severance’s mental health to Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter, who did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment Monday.
Cook said little about the evidence, but noted in general the importance of eyewitnesses. In the Lodato slaying, a caregiver who worked in the Lodato home was also shot, but survived.
When Severance was arrested last March in West Virginia on the unrelated gun charge from Loudoun County, police at the time declined to refer to him as a suspect in the Alexandria killings but said they wanted to question him about the cases after receiving a tip. By June, police acknowledged that Severance was the focus of their investigation.
Police said evidence indicated similarities in the weapon used in each of the killings. The slayings occurred within a few miles of each other. All three victims were prominent residents within Alexandria, but none were known to have a specific connection to Severance.
Court records show Severance carried a deep grudge against Alexandria civil authorities, who revoked custody of his year-old-son in 2000 and forbade him any visitation until he received a mental-health examination. Severance represented himself in parts of the custody dispute and offered scatter-shot criticisms of authorities, though he was never specific in directing his anger at one person or agency. He wrote in one motion about the “inferior opinions of some prominent secular Alexandria authorities and teachers of the law with their rusty moral compasses.”
Severance also ran a website, mentaldisorder.com, in which he said his son “was legally isolated and separated from his father by the notorious City of Alexandria Juvenile Court. Although vilified by the inferior opinions of some judges, Charles Severance remains a God-fearing, highly respected, and solid citizen of Virginia.”
Ed Ungvarsky, a capital public defender who had himself appointed to represent Severance on the gun charge in Loudoun, did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment Monday.
- Will Severance pay - Court records show Severance carried a deep grudge against Alexandria civil authorities, who revoked custody of his year-old-son in 2000 and forbade him any visitation until he received a mental-health examination. Severance represented himself in parts of the custody dispute and offered scatter-shot criticisms of authorities, though he was never specific in directing his anger at one person or agency. He wrote in one motion about the "inferior opinions of some prominent secular Alexandria authorities and teachers of the law with their rusty moral compasses."
