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Crime

A woman returned to her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on June 4, 2024. When she walked in, she saw the dead body of one of her roommates.

She immediately called 911, and when authorities arrived, they found two additional people deceased in the home. 60-year-old Gregory Scott Powell, 65-year-old Carol Anne Reese, and 77-year-old Robert John McGurire were the victims.

As the investigation progressed, one roommate was missing: 23-year-old Alyssa Jane Venable, who had lived in the home for 1 or 2 months.

She quickly became the prime suspect after authorities learned she told friends she “hurt people.” Investigators discovered she left her dog with a friend and gave him instructions on how to care for it. She also left behind her online passwords, cash, and a suicide note.

Days after the crime, she was in Steuben County, New York, when an officer tried to pull her over. She fled at speeds up to 100 miles per hour. She crashed after authorities took out her tires and was quickly taken into custody.

Inside her car, police found a book about serial killers and a serial killer coloring book, indicating she had some sort of fascination with violence.

Police would reveal that her murder spree started with her shooting one of her roommates, then hiding his body. From there, she put sleeping pills in spaghetti and fed it to her roommates, thinking they would die in their sleep, but that didn’t work, and the next day, she killed two more roommates.

Legal Proceedings

With overwhelming evidence against her, Venable pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, and assault & battery on February 24th, 2025.

On June 20th, 2025, she returned to court and was sentenced to 99  years in prison for the murders and 14 years for the additional charges.