Woman accused of killing three roommates is arrested after car chase

Although authorities have not disclosed how the roommates were killed, Venable has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and use of a firearm to commit a crime, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. As for a possible motive for the killings, the statement said the “investigation is ongoing and in its early stages. … We are withholding certain aspects of the incident.”

The victims were identified as Robert J. McGuire, 77, Gregory S. Powell, 60, and Carol Anne Reese, 65, of the 10500 block of White Street Court near the city of Fredericksburg, about 50 miles south of Washington. After officers were dispatched to the apartment around 10 p.m. Tuesday to check on the residents’ welfare, “they entered the apartment and found three adults deceased from trauma to the upper half of their bodies,” the statement said.

Trooper Lynnea Crane, a spokeswoman for the New York State Police, said Friday that her department had “received information from the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office that (Venable) may be in our area” in a 2009 Honda Civic. Patrol officers were alerted to the Honda’s license plate and instructed to be on the lookout for the car, Crane said.

She said a police officer spotted the Honda shortly after 5:30 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 86 in Angelica, N.Y., about 80 miles from Buffalo and 400 miles north of the Virginia crime scene. The ensuing chase lasted about 40 miles at speeds up to 100 mph. It ended in Avoca, N.Y., where the car drove over a set of tire spikes that police had deployed and crashed into a guardrail on a highway overpass, Crane said.

Avoca is about 100 miles from the Canadian border. “Why was she up here? That’s unknown at this time,” Crane said.

After the crash, Venable “complained of pain” and was treated at a hospital, Crane said. She was held overnight at a local jail and appeared in a New York court Friday morning, where she waived her right to contest extradition to Virginia, Crane said. She said Spotsylvania authorities are expected to travel to New York early next week to pick her up. It was unclear Friday whether Venable is represented by an attorney.

Crane said Venable was alone in the Honda. He declined to comment on whether weapons were found in the car.

“Our investigators are working very closely with the New York State Police to secure evidence as this case is still in its early stages,” Maj. Elizabeth Scott, a spokeswoman for the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office, said in a statement.