ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270113
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
POLICE ARE NOT LOOKING for any suspects in the recent deaths that occurred at a Fairfax Road town house.
A medical examiner said Friday's shooting deaths of three people at a Blacksburg town house appear to be a double murder and suicide.
Robert L. Asbury, 60, of Christiansburg died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, said Dr. David Oxley, deputy chief medical examiner for Western Virginia.
Police said Friday that Asbury was found in a bedroom of his estranged wife's town house on Fairfax Road. Susan M. Asbury, 44, also was found dead in the bedroom. She had been shot four times, in the chest, neck and left hand, Oxley said
Donald G. Anderson, 44, of Radford, who was a friend and former co-worker of Susan Asbury's, was found in the garage. He also had been shot four times, Oxley said, in the head, neck and chest.
"It looks like a double-homicide and a suicide," Oxley said Monday.
But Blacksburg police said they haven't received the coroner's report and won't officially close the case until their investigation is complete.
"We want to make sure that everything is fact before we let it go," Lt. Bruce Bradbery said Monday.
Police are not seeking a suspect, a department news release said.
Police found a .22-caliber revolver and a .38-caliber revolver at the town house.
It appears Robert Asbury used both weapons that were found in the house, Oxley said, but he is awaiting the results of gunshot residue tests and toxicology analysis to complete his report.
Susan Asbury had lived in the New River Valley 15 years. She was an eligibility worker for Carilion Health System at Roanoke Community Hospital.
Robert Asbury had recently retired from Hercules Inc. and Alliant, formerly known as the Radford Army Ammunition Plant. In an application for a concealed weapon permit in Montgomery County last year, he wrote that he was supervisor of the ballistics and small-arms test range.
He wrote in his application, filed in September, that he had owned and used guns for 50 years and regularly practiced at a gun range. He completed a Hunter Education course shortly before applying for the gun permit.
"I am totally knowledgeable in all aspects of safe handling of fire arms,'' Asbury wrote. The permit was granted in January.
Anderson worked for the Montgomery County Department of Social Services for 41/2 years. He was a senior employment services worker. Anderson assessed clients' needs for job training and job development programs that would help them move toward self-sufficiency, Director Dan Farris said.
"He really became synonymous with the Employment Services Program" and had done a "really super job of getting the program organized."
Farris said clients with whom Anderson had worked, people "who felt they had been tremendously helped by him," were calling the office Monday to express their condolences.
Susan Asbury was a former employee of Montgomery County's Department of Social Services. She was indicted in July 1995 on two felony charges involving the purchase of tires using a voucher meant for the department's use.
In October, she pleaded not guilty to the original charges and was found guilty of two lesser charges, including petty larceny.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB