Bluemerle

Horrible, horrible.

Four members of a South Richmond family were found murdered in their burning Woodland Heights home Sunday. Police have identified the dead as Bryan and Kathryn Harvey and their two daughters Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4.


Kathryn and Bryan Harvey
1996, TIMES-DISPATCH

Friends called the fire department when they arrived at the home to attend a scheduled 2pm New Year’s Day chili party. They found smoke coming from the home in the eight-hundred block of West 31st Street.

Firemen discovered the four bodies. Their throats had been cut.

People who knew the victims say were a close-knit family. Often times, neighbors say, they would see the family playing in the front yard.

Brian Harvey was employed by the Henrico school system and played with the band ‘NrG Krysys.’ His wife Kathryn was a co-owner of the Carytown gift shop ‘World of Mirth.’ Daughter Stella attended Fox Elementary School.

Police say they are investigating the deaths as a case of homicide and arson.

My brother knows these people; I didn't, but I knew of them. My kid and I just loved her toy store., World of Mirth. Though I was never much into the cool Richmond band scene, I danced to one of his bands, the Dad's, in the mid-80's. From all accounts talented, energetic, much-loved folks who were really contributing members of the Richmond community.


They lived in a quiet and generally crime-free area of South Richmond, called Woodland Heights, in an attractive brick corner house off of 31st st. The last murder I can think of that took place there was in 1987, when serial killer Timothy Spencer skulked over from a half-way house about a mile away on Porter st, and attacked and killed Dr. Susan Hellams.

I have no idea if that halfway house is even still there. However, another double killing (possible murder-suicide) that same afternoon involving a man recently released from jail makes me wonder if it is. Update: If the halfway house operation still exists, it moved. Both houses at it's former adress of 1500-02 Porter Street, are available for rental.

Second Update: Via the Richmond Times Dispatch, The halfway house was forced to close and was sold in 1988. I have no knowlege of any similar program, or house in the area.

The family was murdered sometime between 10:00am and 1:40pm New Year's Day...
Bryan Harvey and his band had played at a local hotel New Year's Eve and returned home at 2 a.m., friends and family said. His 9-year-old daughter Stella spent the night at a friend's house and returned home at 10 a.m. Sunday, where she was greeted at the door by her mother, friends and neighbors said.

A friend arrived with his daughter around 1:40 to help set up for the planned afternoon chili-fest...he let himself in the open front door and was immediately engulfed in a this haze of smoke. He called out, no one answered, and his immediate idea was that the family had gone out for a stroll and left something on the stove, which ke quickly checked...but there was nothing on the stove, no party preparations in sight.

He got a neighbor to call 911: firefighters arrived and within minutes made the gruesome discovery of the bound bodies in the basement. According to reports in the Times Dispatch, there was no extensive fire damage in the room.

Friends kept arriving for chili, to find instead a murder scene.

The other double killing I mentioned took place in Bellmeade, It's really not very far away from the murder of the family; 4 miles tops...and maybe 2 and half miles from the address of Timothy Spencer's halfway house.

The two dead, were a father and daughter, the father had recently been released from jail. They were found 7pm in a corner house in the 2400 block of Terminal Ave, a block east of Jefferson Davis Highway. He was shot in the head and she was shot in the chest. The bodies were found by the mother of the woman ( she was also the estranged wife of the male) who hadn't heard from here daughter since Friday, and was worried enough to go check on her.