The murder of Nancy Dunning
Alexandria, Virginia · 2003
Overview
Nancy Dunning, a 62-year-old Alexandria real-estate agent and the wife of then-Sheriff James Dunning, was shot dead in the front hallway of her home on December 5, 2003 after answering a knock at her door. The killing baffled investigators and went cold for a decade. It was only after two strikingly similar daytime door-step shootings of prominent Alexandria residents -- transportation planner Ronald Kirby in November 2013 and music teacher Ruthanne Lodato in February 2014 -- that ballistics testing linked all three crimes to the same extremely unusual ammunition and type of firearm, an uncommon North American Arms .22-caliber revolver. That forensic firearm linkage transformed the unsolved Dunning case into one node of a serial pattern and focused the investigation on Charles Stanard Severance, a man who harbored a grudge against the city's leaders after losing custody of his son. A jury convicted Severance of all three killings on October 29, 2015.
How it was solved
When Nancy Dunning was shot in 2003, Alexandria police recovered .22-caliber bullets but had no weapon, no fingerprint and no clear suspect, and the case stalled for ten years. The break came not from the Dunning scene itself but from forensic firearm comparison after Ronald Kirby was killed at his door in November 2013 and Ruthanne Lodato was killed at hers in February 2014. Firearms examiners determined that all three victims had been shot with .22-caliber long-rifle Remington plain-lead bullets fired through a barrel with eight lands and grooves and a right twist, rifling characteristics consistent with an uncommon North American Arms mini revolver. Veteran examiner Julien Mason testified he had encountered that particular ammunition only three times in a career of thousands of examinations -- in these three murders. On March 6, 2014 the Alexandria police chief announced a 'definitive link' among the Dunning, Kirby and Lodato homicides based on the ballistics. That linkage, combined with Lodato's surviving caretaker Janet Franko identifying the gunman, eyewitness sightings of a red Ford Escort matching Severance's car, and Severance's own writings glorifying door-step killing with a .22, pointed investigators to Charles Severance, who had been jailed in West Virginia on an unrelated felon-in-possession-of-a-firearm charge. He was indicted for all three murders on September 8, 2014, and a Fairfax County jury convicted him on October 29, 2015.
Sources
- Charles Severance (serial killer)
“ballistics testing demonstrated a definitive link between the Dunning, Kirby, and Lodato homicides ... attacked in broad daylight by knocking on victims' doors and killing those who answered with a .22 caliber firearm.”
- Charles Stanard Severance v. Commonwealth of Virginia
“Nancy Dunning, Dec. 5, 2003 ... Ronald Kirby, Nov. 11, 2013 ... Ruthanne Lodato, Feb. 6, 2014 ... .22 caliber, eight lands and grooves, right twist ... Remington .22 long-rifle plain lead; firearms examiner had seen this type of ammunition only three times -- in the three murders involved in this case.”
- Charles Severance Receives Three Life Sentences in Triple-Murder Trial
“Found guilty on all 10 counts ... three life sentences plus an additional 48 years in prison and $400,000 in fines. Bryan Porter: 'You have delivered justice to a monster.'”
- Alexandria police still trying to solve slaying of Nancy Dunning, sheriff's wife
“Nancy Dunning was shot point blank on the afternoon of December 5, 2003 after answering a knock at the door ... last seen at the Potomac Yard Target.”
- Charles Severance
“Nancy Dunning: 62 ... Ronald Kirby: 69 ... Ruthanne Lodato: 59 ... arrested March 12, 2014, at the Ohio County Library in Wheeling, West Virginia on a weapons charge ... possession of a firearm by a felon ... indicted September 8, 2014 ... On January 20, 2016, Judge Randy Bellows imposed three life terms plus 48 years.”
- Virginia man Charles Severance convicted of revenge killing spree against city
“His hatred for the city of Alexandria following the loss of custody of his son drove the killings ... he praised the .22-caliber ammunition, calling it 'sweet music and very very effective.'”
- Insight into a twisted mind: Why Alexandria's serial killer chose his victims, their neighborhood
“Porter hung his case on ballistics evidence and the similar manner in which Ron Kirby and Ruthanne Lodato were killed just as Dunning had been -- shot in broad daylight at their front doors ... 'he was looking for older people home alone during the day.'”
- Charles S. Severance arrested in Wheeling, W.Va.
“Severance was arrested in Wheeling, West Virginia on felony gun charges in Loudoun County -- the charge being a felon in possession of a firearm; investigators questioned whether he had any connection to the deaths of Lodato, Dunning, and Kirby.”