Neighbors Puzzled by Vienna Woman's Role In Murder-Suicide

As she often did, Barbara Newman stopped to say hello to one of her neighbors around 3:30 p.m. Friday outside the Farmside Place house she had lived in for more than a decade, this time asking if he would mind helping her replace some smoke detector batteries the next day.

But less than an hour later, Fairfax County Police were called to the McLean home of Newman’s psychiatrist Mark Lawrence, that shocked friends and families of a "normal," "intelligent" patient and a big-hearted doctor.

Fairfax County Police are still investigating what happened in the retired doctor's Tebbs Lane home, where Lawrence, 71, still saw patients.
 Both died of gunshot wounds, police said.

On Farmside Place, just off of Leesburg Pike, neighbors in the Blueberry Hill community were shocked when they heard about the incident.

Vienna resident Newman, 62, was normal, neighbors said. She lived alone and kept to herself at times but attended neighborhood gatherings and socialized with the families around her.

"It wasn't like she was an angry person," said Betsy Erickson, who lives next door to Newman. "She was intelligent ... she didn't have any violent tendencies."

Erickson said Newman, a scientist by training whom she believes also had a doctorate, worked for the National Institutes of Health. She hadn't worked in a few years "by choice," Erickson said.

Newman saw Erickson and her family fairly often, hiring Erickson's daughter to mow the lawn and her son to put together Ikea furniture or do other odds and ends around the house. Newman's mother visited occasionally from Florida until her death a few years ago, Erickson said, and she had a sister who visited the home as well.

Family members of Newman could not be reached for this story.

Neighbors have gathered to talk about Newman’s alleged actions, exchange information and try to work through a thought process that would have led to the deaths, Erickson said.

"It was very upsetting. The neighbors were just shocked. It's very sad for her sister, her family and for Dr. Lawrence’s family as well," Erickson said.

In McLean, the narrow lane that leads to Lawrence’s home just off Georgetown Pike was chained with a large gate Monday, keeping visitors from the house and the three others that sit on a heavily wooded five-acre plot.

Lawrence had an office on Whittier Street in downtown McLean but only spent about a third of his time there. Neighbors told McLean Patch that his wife had a stroke a few years ago, and continued to live in the home with a caretaker. She was home at the time of the incident.

Susan Lindsay, of Reston, a minister who did pastoral counseling, said she often consulted about patients with Lawrence because they had a similar practice — helping people who came in distress needing some help with their lives. People who had a trauma history.

"He was a wonderful one," she said. "Very warm. Very perspective. Emotionally present. He brought more than just intellectual. ... He was an advocate" for his patients, she said.

"He was a very, very gifted warm presence. There was always a sense that he was a support," Lindsay said. "He was an extremely compassionate person."

Bobbi Bowman reported for this story.

This article has been updated.

Patch will continue to report on this story as more information becomes available.