Fire in upper NW?

[Anonymous]

It is certainly possible that the "landscaping crew" was in fact criminals who masked their presence and activity (and potential noise) by "hiding in plain sight" as a landscaping crew.

Again, the abandoned car and reference to blunt force trauma very much militate against a theory of familicide (murder/suicide).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I remember that when the couple was murdered in Belt Road about 7-8 years ago, the neighbors commented about landscapers working in the yard too. To drown out noise?

no. read the link a few pages back. That happened late at night, and the perps were drug buddies of the foster teen that the dead couple had fostered for a little bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The blunt force trauma; abandoned car (that belonged to the mother); and the fire all seem to stronly indicate this was a home invasion/murder type scenario.

Probably came in the early morning and held the family hostage, keeping them alive, until the banks opened so that they could force one of the parents to make a large withdrawal from a bank. (ATM withdrawals have relatively low cash limits.) They may have had the parent drive the car to the bank with one of the perps in the front seat and a second vehicle following. They then abandon the car and return to the home with the parent who has made the withdrawal, with the family members held hostage used as leverage to keep the parent cooperative as they got the money. Then murdered the family and housekeeper in the home and started the fire to destroy forensically useful evidence. Sadly, it is probably easy to look up how to set a delayed fire, so they set it and leave and it is only discovered when the smoke becomes apparent.

If my child was a hostage and I played through scenarios in my head I might very well hope that getting them the money would result in all being left unharmed. They could have said that if they did not get in touch with their confederates every 5 minutes (proving they had not been caught by law enforcement) the child and other parent would be killed.

I realize this is all a crazy amount of speculation. I am trying to process this and typing out a "theory" is a way to do that. I grieve for this family.

This is exactly how the disturbing Connecticut case played out in 2007. Link is a few pages back on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Where was the killer when she was
In the bank in this scenario?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The blunt force trauma; abandoned car (that belonged to the mother); and the fire all seem to stronly indicate this was a home invasion/murder type scenario.

Probably came in the early morning and held the family hostage, keeping them alive, until the banks opened so that they could force one of the parents to make a large withdrawal from a bank. (ATM withdrawals have relatively low cash limits.) They may have had the parent drive the car to the bank with one of the perps in the front seat and a second vehicle following. They then abandon the car and return to the home with the parent who has made the withdrawal, with the family members held hostage used as leverage to keep the parent cooperative as they got the money. Then murdered the family and housekeeper in the home and started the fire to destroy forensically useful evidence. Sadly, it is probably easy to look up how to set a delayed fire, so they set it and leave and it is only discovered when the smoke becomes apparent.

If my child was a hostage and I played through scenarios in my head I might very well hope that getting them the money would result in all being left unharmed. They could have said that if they did not get in touch with their confederates every 5 minutes (proving they had not been caught by law enforcement) the child and other parent would be killed.

I realize this is all a crazy amount of speculation. I am trying to process this and typing out a "theory" is a way to do that. I grieve for this family.

This is exactly how the disturbing Connecticut case played out in 2007. Link is a few pages backpe on this thread.

I don't think I can stand to read about the other case.

Washington Post article also says that there was a lot of work being done on the home with "workers in and out." So it is possible a casual worker (or someone who learned about the property, innocently or not) from a casual worker, organized this. There are so many TV shows like SVU etc. that have these sorts of plot lines that I don't think it would be hard for people to come up with this scenario.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where was the killer when she was
In the bank in this scenario?

Maybe in the bank too, or maybe waiting outside, confident in the leverage of a family held hostage. The timing (of the car seen at 10:30 am, and the time of the fire) really indicates to me that someone was waiting for something. Bank windows with tellers open late, so that's why I think of the bank scenario. I guess it's also possible they forced the husband to drive to his business and retrieve cash, but the use of the mother's car (and the fact that corporations wouldn't normally have lots of cash handy) suggests it is more likely she would have been the one.

[Anonymous]

Car was burned too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Car was burned too.

Additional attempt by outside murderers to destroy evidence, seems like? -- no family member would need to burn car as it would be reasonable for their hair/DNA to be found in the car.

[Anonymous]

More info here.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/29072991/dc-fire-community-mourns

[Anonymous]

Good lord. Meagan Fitzgerald local TV Station reporter for NBC 4 needs to learn how to pronounce St Albans School. She butchered it. Yikes. For a local reporter that is really awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good lord. Meagan Fitzgerald local TV Station reporter for NBC 4 needs to learn how to pronounce St Albans School. She butchered it. Yikes. For a local reporter that is really awful.

She also butchered their name. For a reporter, that's pretty 101.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The mother's text "I want to make sure you are not coming today.
Come Monday or any other day but not today.". It seems strange.
I guess it also makes me wonder about that moment. Did she think of
how to word the text in a way the recipient would know something was
up but the perpetrator wouldn't.

Maybe Monday was her "off" day, so that would send a signal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember that they had big dogs. Big, beautiful dogs that would have probably attacked any intruders. I've been wondering, did they die too?

So sad and disturbing. All of this.

An animal control van was there when I drove by on my way home from work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just read the latest Washington Post report.

Neighbor said a landscaping crew was there to cut grass that morning.

Landscaping crew could silence noises (as PP mentioned) and of course, provide the gasoline accelerant. No one ever looks twice at landscaping trucks in neighborhoods.

Have the landscapers been detained for questioning? If not, there is a need to act fast on this; landscapers are almost all undocumented aliens and they often just disappear back over the border in these situations without a trace.

Just stop.

[Anonymous]

Also, in a house like that, I'm sure they would have had an alarm system. I know all systems are different, but the newer ones definitely have a code for sending a silent emergency alarm. In fact, when our system was installed the technician said that the couple who was held hostage in McLean used that emergency code.