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Police look for gunman, clues in fatal shooting in Alexandria Police look for gunman, clues in fatal shooting in Alexandria
(about 5 hours later)
As the search for a bearded and balding gunman who fatally shot a well-known Alexandria music teacher entered its second day, detectives began sorting through tips, delving into the teacher’s life and exploring whether there had been any problems in her quiet, affluent neighborhood — hoping for even the slightest clue as to who killed her. Before there was the beloved music teacher, there was the well-known transportation planner. Before them, there was the sheriff’s wife.
Police on Friday said they had yet to make an arrest in the slaying of 59-year-old Ruthanne Lodato, who was gunned down Thursday in an unusual, late-morning attack at her home on Ridge Road Drive. Police have said a bearded, balding older man knocked on Lodato’s door at about 11:30 a.m., and when she and another woman answered, he began shooting. Three fixtures in the Alexandria community, all as prominent as they were loved, all gunned down inside their homes for reasons that elude police.
Lodato, a well-known music teacher with deep roots in Alexandria, was fatally wounded, and the other woman, a caregiver who worked in the home, was shot and injured. An Alexandria police spokeswoman said Friday that the caregiver had been hospitalized after Thursday night’s shooting, though she was unsure if she had since been discharged. The shooter got away. The fatal shooting of Ruthanne Lodato on Thursday was shocking in its own right. The 59-year-old music teacher, police say, was shot after she opened the door for a balding, bearded visitor in a tan jacket.
Alexandria police spokeswoman Crystal Nosal said police on Friday would continue combing through the victims’ lives and any problems in the neighborhood that might offer hints as to who perpetrated the attack. She said they would try to interview the caregiver again if the woman was healthy enough to talk. But as the investigation moved into its second day — and as police and city officials said they still had no idea who killed Lodato, or why — those on the streets of Alexandria were left to face a disturbing reality: Could the three killings be linked?
“Detectives are going to be examining every aspect of the case,” Nosal said. They all occurred in broad daylight, at homes within two miles of one another. The killer or killers never forced their way in. The victims were all high-profile, even if just in the fabric of Alexandria.
The house of the popular music teacher remained cordoned off by yellow police tape on Friday morning. Someone had set flowers and two piano instruction manuals outside. One was printed with “Jack” in a child’s handwriting. Alexandria Police Chief Earl L. Cook said Friday that detectives are “looking at any similarities” between Lodato’s slaying and other unsolved cases, including the 2003 slaying of Nancy Dunning, the wife of the late sheriff James Dunning, and the November killing of Ronald Kirby, the director of transportation planning at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. He said no evidence has yet been found that links Lodato’s case to other crimes, but said police would be “remiss” not to look further.
Louis De Merode, who lives across the street, fondly recalled annual holiday gatherings at the Lodatos’ house, where she would lead neighbors in Christmas carols from her piano. Detectives will check if the suspect described in Lodato’s case matches suspects in others, and they will also compare ballistics test results and other forensic evidence, said Crystal Nosal, an Alexandria police spokeswoman.
He said for Lodato made reindeer cookies for the last party that were so perfect “no one dared eat them.” The lack of answers has left some feeling disconcerted.
“There was a buzz around the house,” De Merode said. “People were coming and going. It was lively.” “There is a level of fear in this community that we didn’t have before,” said David Mudd, a lifelong neighbor of Lodato.
De Merode said Lodato had built an addition on the home, so her elderly mother could live with her. Cook said investigators now believed the gunman who killed Lodato — and shot and wounded a caregiver who worked in Lodato’s home — was wearing a tan jacket. He said it was too early to know whether Lodato or her home was targeted, or if the attack was random. He said detectives planned to re-interview the caregiver once she is healthy enough. Late Friday, police released a composite sketch of the suspect.
Doug Smith, lay leader of Del Ray United Methodist Church, described Lodato as a gifted musician and passionate teacher whose death leaves a “hole” in the community. Music Together Alexandria, the program Lodato taught with, rented a classroom at the church and she also had been a substitute organist at the church, playing weddings, funerals and other services — “whenever she was needed,” Smith said. Mayor William D. Euille said that police would not spare any expense in tracking down the killer. He said residents had a “right to be concerned,” though officials did not have enough information to confirm what is perhaps everyone’s worst fear.
Every time he passed Lodato’s classroom, Smith recalled seeing a “very lively” scene: Two- and 3-year-old children “jumping up and down,” happily banging on tambourines and dancing with their parents. He admitted it was a tough task — getting restless toddlers to stop fiddling with the carpet or staring out the window and genuinely connect with the music — but she handled it well. “I don’t want to characterize it that there is a serial killer floating around the city,” Euille said.
“She’s probably influenced thousands of kids over the past two years with her love of music,” Smith told reporters outside the church, where Lodato was scheduled Friday morning to teach. “She loved bringing music to the children.” Family members of those killed in the city’s other high-profile cases said they could not help but notice the similarities between Lodato’s shooting and the slayings of their loved ones.
John Kelly, another neighbor, said Lodato had given music lessons to his two children. Anne G. Haynes, Kirby’s wife, said in an interview Friday that the main connection between Lodato’s and her husband’s killings was that both seemed “random,” but detectives had not followed up with her since the more recent murder.
“Ruthanne was woven into the fabric of this community. She was our friend, neighbor and most of all she was the center of a big, beautiful family,” Kelly said. “Between her work, the neighborhood, schools and church, you’d have to walk pretty far to find someone that doesn’t know her.” Liz Dunning, daughter of Nancy Dunning, who was a well-known real estate agent, said her heart sank when she heard the news of Lodato’s death, though she was not aware of any possible connections to her mother’s case.
Kelly said Lodato was a classically trained pianist and attended nearby Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. She has three daughters — two who are adults and one that attends Virginia Tech. “It’s heartbreaking there is another family that is experiencing this type of loss without answers,” said Dunning, 36.
Lodato had grown up on the block, just across the street from the home where she was killed, one of five brothers and sisters. Among Lodato’s family and friends, shock seemed to give way Friday to grief and sorrow.
David Mudd, who said he had been a neighbor of Lodato’s for his entire life, said her death had chilled the community. Joan Gartlan, a longtime friend of Lodato who spoke for the family, said no one could comprehend who would want to hurt the music teacher. Lodato, Gartlan said, was a loving wife to her husband, Norman, with whom she had three daughters, Lucia Lodato, 32 ; Gina Lodato Pelusi, 29; and Carmen Lodato, 20. She said Norman and Ruthanne Lodato lived with Ruthanne’s 89-year-old mother, Mary Lucy Giammittorio, though a caregiver helped them out while they were at work.
“There is a level of fear in this community that we didn’t have before,” Mudd said. “The seemingly random nature of this adds an extra level of fear.” They were a happy family, Gartlan said, with no enemies.
Mudd said he felt a twinge of anxiety when someone knocked on his door earlier on Friday. “The truth is, who wouldn’t open their door for an elderly man with gray hair and a beard?” Mudd asked, referring to the description of the man who shot Lodato. “I mean, she taught music to young children,” Gartlan said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
The shooting sparked fear and bewilderment throughout Alexandria, in no small part because police said they were investigating whether it might be connected to the equally mysterious and high-profile slaying of prominent regional transportation planner Ronald Kirby. Authorities have said there were no signs of forced entry at Kirby’s house, and his wife has said nothing was stolen. Police have not made an arrest. Gartlan said Ruthanne Lodato, who she knew from their high school days at St. Mary’s Academy, had recently helped plan her class’s 40th reunion, and she remembers fondly the music teacher holding up her hand to cue the group to sing the school’s alma mater.
Kirby, 69, lived a little more than a mile from Ridge Road Drive and was killed sometime between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 11. Police said they had no specific evidence linking Lodato’s slaying to any other crime. “We’re all devastated,” Gartlan said. “She was really kind of the glue that held everything together.”
One man, who asked that his name not be used to protect his privacy, reached out to police on Twitter after spotting someone roughly matching the suspect’s description in Lodato’s slaying on Washington Street near the Lyceum museum about 9:30 p.m. A few of Lodato’s family members declined to talk, but issued a statement saying they were “heartbroken” by the loss
The man said in a text message conversation that the man — who was balding, with gray hair and a full, bushy beard — was “speaking to himself loudly” and that after walking south rapidly, he turned suddenly north. The tipster said he typically “would have thought nothing of it,” but in light of the day’s events, he told two people he was talking with that they should leave and later contacted police. “A beloved wife, mother, sister and daughter, she was our family rock and we will not be the same without her,” they wrote in the statement, provided by Gartlan.
Nosal said she had forwarded the man’s information to detectives, who would follow up on his and other tips. She said it was too early to say if the man spotted was in any way connected to the shooting. Outside of Lodato’s house — which was still cordoned off with yellow crime tape Friday afternoon — someone left flowers and two piano books. Neighbor John Kelly said Lodato had given music lessons to his two children, and her loss was keenly felt.
Patrick Svitek and Rachel Weiner contributed to this report. “Ruthanne was woven into the fabric of this community,” Kelly said.
Get updates on your area delivered via e-mail. In their grief, though, neighbors also grappled with the fear that a killer who had walked along their street Thursday was still on the loose.
Louis De Merode, who lives across the street from Lodato, said his house cleaner saw the aftermath of the shooting. De Merode said the housekeeper told him she glanced out a window after she heard a dog barking, then saw a man running across the Lodato’s front yard and heard a woman screaming.
De Merode said while that itself was terrifying, pondering its connection to other killings in the area was even more so.
“This shooting felt completely random, almost like a meteor it just happened to strike here,” De Merode said. “But when I found out this morning about Kirby’s killing in a similar way, things felt a little more ominous.”
One man, who asked that his name not be used to protect his privacy, even reached out to police on Twitter after spotting someone roughly matching the suspect’s description in Lodato’s slaying on Washington Street near the Lyceum museum about 9:30 p.m. Thursday. The man said in a text message conversation that the man — who was balding, with gray hair and a full, bushy beard — was “speaking to himself loudly” and that after walking south rapidly, he turned suddenly north.
The tipster said he typically “would have thought nothing of it,” but in light of the day’s events, he told two people he was talking with that they should leave and later contacted police. He said late Friday that the man he saw did not match the sketch released by police. Nosal said detectives would follow up on his and many other tips.
Patrick Svitek, Rachel Weiner, Patricia Sullivan and Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.