I agree with everything you mentioned. I feel it almost had to be a killer "hunting" for victims. A person doesn't carry a rifle to a place like that for no reason. It could have been someone with a gun walking around wanting to shoot or target practice and decided to shoot two people. That is uncommon, but has happened before. I recall a case in the Midwest a few years back where a guy shot two children shortly after purchasing a new gun and admitted later that he wanted to see "what the gun would do to a human". The case remained unsolved for several years until he used the same gun to kill his girlfriend.
I believe he is someone who is familiar with the area and knew the place was a lovers lane or sometimes a hangout for younger people. Some have speculated that this may have been a "revenge killing" against Heidi as her father was a VA State Trooper. But, I dismiss that idea since he was a helicopter pilot and his interaction with the public would have been minimal. Plus, other than her friends, who would have known she was the daughter of a LE officer? Also, their outing together was not planned well in advance and was pretty much a spur of the moment thing.
LE has never stated if Heidi was sexually assaulted or not. Could this have been the motive? LE has stated that they have DNA-could that be the source. Certainly, there are other ways to capture DNA such as touching of the clothes, their car or maybe shell casings. I remember being in the area a couple of days after this as I drove my son to Radford University for his freshman year of college. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and I read about the case in the local paper. The investigators described the crime scene as "brutal". Could a sexual assault have been what they were referencing?
Actually i'm leaning more toward an impulsive act, possibly with a precipitating event prior, but both are possible given what we have been by LE
I'll explain why
Lets start with the shooting itself.
Though they were shot with a popular hunting caliber , this was not like a sniper style shooting from concealment they were shot , according to police, at point blank range , David found still sitting at the wheel of the vehicle, Heidi on the ground near the passenger side
A hunting rifle, unless modified isn't a really concealable firearm, so his approach had to be sudden, or he somehow otherwise approached stalked them till he was, literally on top of them to begin shooting.
The choice of weapon itself is odd, most shootings in the US are committed with handguns, the most popular caliber by far used in shootings, is .9mm, then .45 followed by.40 S&W from there the most popular calibers used in shootings, tend to be assault rifle caliber rounds , 5.56 (AR15) 7.62 x 39(AK47/SKS) , and in some cases, .308. Shotguns are also in there but im focusing on rifles.
My point is you dont see many other 30 Caliber rounds used in murders other than 7.62, and .308.
I feel he didnt go out and buy a .30-30 to hunt humans , this was either something stolen, or something he owns (owned), but IMO it was most likely something he had for reasons other than murder.
But Ill add, In many rural areas however hunting rifles are also used as a means of home defense.
Because LE is reightfully withhlding info , we have to approach it from what we know and base an analysis off there
First we need to clear the victims, was there anyone who wanted to do either one of them harm?, you have to turn over their background and see if theres any hints, of something off.
Jealousy, anger, revenge could all be motivating factors, was someone infatuated with Heidi or David?, could this be jealosy?, who knew where they were that day?, all have to be considered , always start close and work out .
Then consider whats outside the scope of the victims background.
It appears David is killed outright, how many times he (or Heidi) was shot is being kept by LE to rule out false info, but that gives us a 2 way go at what were dealing with, the Male, the most likely threat is killed first.
That could be the luck of the draw, that he was just closer to David than Heidi at the outset of the shootings, however its seen A LOT in multiple homicides with a sexual component , in which the killer needs time to assault the desired , in this case female victim, so one is eliminated , usually the biggest threat immediately.
Next we have items taken from the scene, and from what LE states they all belong to Heidi, thats pretty substantial, with no robbery indicated, that to a trained investigator tells us he wants to remember HER, not THEM.
Heidi was killed second, shes outside the vehicle on the ground , details are scarce in her killing, but reportedly theres DNA recovered, (nature unspecified) but its her belongings , not Davids, that are taken from the scene .
Again if they were fired upon from a distance, or if there was no indication of any type of sexual component to the crime, or there were no trophies taken from the scene I say youre dealing with someone perhaps with some type of psychological illness (though an argument could be made for such in almost any murder)
The similar murders of a couple in Jenner California in 2004 , are an example of this , where they were just killed in their tent , by a mentally disturbed individual "just because"
Id be very interested in the nature of the DNA and where it was found , was it blood, saliva, semen, where was it recovered etc.. that can also tell you volumes about the offender .
So what was it ? Random killing? Jealous stalker,? Psychotic killer?, Serial killer ?
With what little info we have,we cant be sure, but I can tell you that taking souvenirs from any scene , tells you enough about a certain offender to know this individual enjoyed it wants to relive it , eventually that excitement fades, and if the planets align again he could without any hesitation re-offend
Just remember theres always a story , we have to find the verses to complete the book.
