Inset: Alyssa Venable (Steuben County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The scene where she crashed her car and was arrested (New York State Police).
A woman who confessed to murdering her three roommates in Virginia, then fleeing the scene and engaging in a high-speed pursuit with law enforcement in New York, has been sentenced to nearly 100 years in prison.
According to a report from Law&Crime, Alyssa Venable, 24, acknowledged in February that she was guilty of the murders of 60-year-old Gregory Scott Powell, 65-year-old Carol Anne Reese, and 77-year-old Robert John McGuire in 2024. On Friday, a Spotsylvania Circuit Court judge imposed a 99-year prison sentence on her.
She also received an additional 14 years on a felony firearms charge.
The gruesome discovery was made on June 4, 2024, when a fourth roommate returned to their shared residence in Fredericksburg—a city located roughly 48 miles south of Washington, D.C.—around 10 p.m. and alerted authorities after finding a body.
Deputies found the victims dead, and Venable’s car gone.
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Authorities notified the public that Venable was considered armed and dangerous. She was caught days later in her 2009 Honda Civic on I-86 in Steuben County, in the southwest part of the Empire State. She ignored an attempted traffic stop, drove at 100 mph, and ultimately crashed her car when troopers successfully took out her tires using a tire-deflating device.
At the time of the slayings and Venable’s attempt to evade authorities, her grandmother told local reporters that she believed her granddaughter could also be a danger to herself and is someone in “desperate need for help.”
She had reportedly told a friend that “she hurt people” and left instructions to care for her dog. Citing search warrant documents, local ABC affiliate WJLA reported that deputies had received a call from someone who knew Venable, saying she dropped her dog off with him and was “acting strange,” the outlet reported. At about the same time, a reported to deputies that Venable told her “she hurt people.” The friend also told investigators about a note Venable left saying she was going to kill herself in California, adding that Venable left cash, instructions on how to care for her dog, and account passwords.
According to Spotsylvania General District Court records, Venable has a lengthy criminal history dating back to March 2019 that started with an alleged shoplifting or price-altering offense. Later that month, the original charge was amended to one count of entering property to cause damage. In December 2021, she was charged with petit larceny. She had also previously been charged with reckless driving and assault and battery.
