A Troubled Life Ends in Horror

By  Steve Huff

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It still is not clear how Ashley Baskerville got to know either Dandridge or Gray, but her Aunt, Ms. Barnes, told Jim Nolan and Mark Holmberg of the Times-Dispatch that Ashley was already in trouble by the time she was 10.  At that point, according to Ms. Barnes, Ashley had gotten into drugs. It wasn't long before her mother, Mary Baskerville, was at a loss. She turned the child over to the Welfare Department.

Life from then on, for Ashley Baskerville, was a cycle of detention and addiction. That cycle seemed to lead her to Gray and Dandridge.

It is not clear as to whether or not the Tucker/Baskerville family was murdered because Ashley knew about the Harvey murders, and perhaps could not keep the terrible secret much longer. All that is clear is that two families not that far apart in time and distance were brutally murdered in Richmond, VA during the first week of 2006.

Bryan Harvey was an indie rock legend, one-half of House of Freaks — a band that was legendary among independent rock cognoscenti. His wife, Kathryn, was co-owner of a popular and eclectic Richmond novelty shop, World of Mirth.

Neither Mary Baskerville-Tucker nor Percyell Tucker had such a glamorous past or present. Yet, in the end their deaths rendered all that moot. The Harveys and Tucker/Baskervilles suffered through the same nightmare. Richmond, VA, the capital of the Confederate States during the Civil War over 140 years ago, a war fought in part over black slavery, witnessed the birth of a nightmare that saw no color during the first week of the New Year. Two families were found bound and murdered, two families who lived barely a mile apart. Richmond residents of all colors could agree that what they saw unfold that week was terrible. Whether you were white or black, you still checked your locks twice, maybe three times, and you still watched the news with a grim sense of foreboding.

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Steve Huff can be reached via email at steve.huff@gmail.com .