Killer may have been in house when daughter returned from sleep-over         1-3-06

By  Seamus McGraw

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RICHMOND, VA (Crime Library)  — Hours before the bodies of Kathryn Harvey, her husband Bryan and their two young daughters were found bound and butchered in the basement of their burning home, a family friend saw the doomed woman looking pale and shaken as she came to the door of the home to greet her 9-year-old daughter, police confirmed Tuesday.

And while authorities say they are not yet certain as to precisely what happened in the bloody hours that followed, they are holding open the possibility that the events that led to the worst multiple murder in recent Richmond history may already have been underway.

Stella (l) and Ruby Harvey

Among other things, investigators are exploring the possibility that the events that led to the slayings "may have already begun," by 10 or 10:30 a.m. on New Year's Day, when a friend dropped the Harveys' daughter off at the house after a holiday sleepover with the girl's school mates, a police spokeswoman said.

The neighbor reportedly told authorities Kathryn Harvey appeared nervous and pale when she came to the door. Hours later, Johnny Hott, a friend and former band mate of Bryan Harvey's, arrived at the house to help the family prepare for a New Year's Day chili party, smelled smoke and notified firefighters, who discovered the family, slaughtered, their throats slit and their hands bound in the basement. The killer or killers had apparently tried to torch the house to cover the crime. Police declined to say whether an accelerant was used, or whether they had recovered a weapon.

Kathryn Harvey

So far, investigators have released few details of the slaying, but police spokeswoman Kirsten Nelson confirmed Tuesday that there was no sign of forced entry, no indication of a struggle or a robbery, and no evidence that any of the victims had been sexually abused. Authorities do not believe there any link between the slayings and any other homicides in the area.

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