BREAKING NEWS: Charles Severance Charged in Murders of Lodato, Kirby, Dunning

Investigators have charged Charles Severance in the homicides of three City of Alexandria residents — Ruthanne Lodato, Ron Kirby and Nancy Dunning — each victim killed as they answered their front door, their homes just blocks apart.

The case confounded Alexandria Police when similarities between the first two shootings — a decade apart — became a deadly and frightening pattern with the third death in February of Lodato, a popular music teacher.

Severance, 53, was arrested in March at a public library in Wheeling, W.Va., on a warrant for a weapons offense at his Loudoun County home.

Since then, he has remained a “person of interest” in the slayings, primarily due to his resemblance to a police sketch of the suspect and stories of Severance’s eccentric past as a political candidate in Alexandria.

Dunning, a real estate agent, was killed in 2003. Last November, the victim was Kirby, a regional transportation planner.

Lodato’s death in February led police to consider a link. Investigators found common markings on bullet fragments in all three shootings.

For a brief time, residents were warned not to answer the door to strangers, prior to the capture of Severance.

He has been indicted on the following charges:

• 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

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