ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070074
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Police believe Robert L. Asbury went to his estranged wife's southeast Blacksburg town house on Friday, Feb. 23, killed her friend and hid his body, then waited for Susan M. Asbury to return home before killing her and turning the gun on himself.
Town police have all but closed an investigation into the double murder-suicide at the Fairfax Pointe town house. The police findings concur with a medical examiner's findings released last week.
Wednesday, police outlined for the first time how they believe the events unfolded, but they qualified their comments by saying lab results of gunshot residue, blood spatter-DNA tests and toxicology reports are still being prepared.
Susan Asbury and Donald G. Anderson, both 44, and Robert Asbury, 60, were found dead at the town house. Police received a call at 3:43 p.m. from a neighbor who reported hearing several shots fired.
Police arrived within two minutes. Inside, they found the bodies of the Asburys in the third-floor master bedroom. A .38-caliber revolver was in Robert Asbury's right hand, Lt. B.E. Bradbery said Wednesday.
Police later found a note signed "Bob" that indicated there was a third victim named Don. With no full name or other clues, police began looking for the man, making checks at area hospitals. But officers found Anderson's body "meticulously hidden in a storage area within the garage," Bradbery said in a news release.
In all, 11 shots were fired. Susan Asbury and Anderson were each struck by gunfire four times. Robert Asbury died of a single gunshot to the head. Two other shots that police believe were meant for Anderson lodged in a wall and an entrance door.
Based on their investigation, police believe Anderson went to Asbury's home sometime between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., where he encountered Robert Asbury. Police said they were not sure which man was at the town house first. Asbury shot Anderson two times in the kitchen with a .22 caliber handgun, knocking him unconscious.
Police believe Asbury moved Anderson to the bottom of the steps near the apartment entrance where police believe Asbury shot at him four more times. Two of the shots struck Anderson, and at least one was fatal.
"Robert Asbury then hid Anderson's body in the garage, cleaned up some of the mess created by killing Anderson and awaited the arrival of Susan Asbury," according to Bradbery's statement.
When Susan Asbury arrived, between 3 and 3:30 p.m., police believe she was assaulted by her husband in the kitchen and then taken to the master bedroom where her husband shot her with a .38-caliber handgun.
"Shortly thereafter, Robert Asbury sat down on the floor beside Susan's body and committed suicide with the same gun," Bradbery wrote.
"The note was an apology," to some family members, Bradbery said at a Wednesday morning news conference. The note gave no information about a motive for the shooting, he said, and police have concluded it was "apparently just over a broken relationship, a broken marriage," Bradbery said.
He said police weren't as interested in discovering a motive as they were determining how the shooting unfolded.
Susan Asbury had lived in the New River Valley for 15 years. She was an eligibility worker for Carilion Health Systems and had worked in the human services field for the past 20 years.
Previously, she had worked at the Montgomery County Department of Social Services where she met Anderson. Police said the two were good friends.
Anderson had worked for the social services department for the past 41/2 years. He was a senior employment services worker, assessing clients' needs for job training and job development programs.
Robert Asbury had retired Feb. 1 from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, where he was supervisor of the ballistics and small-arms test range.
Police confirmed Wednesday that Susan Asbury's son was at the apartment near the time his mother was shot, stopping by to retrieve a personal item.
"He was there. He went in and we think he heard some shots," Bradbery said. The boy left, told his father who was waiting in a car for him, and that's when police received the call alerting them to shots being fired.
Police had not received any calls about the earlier shooting of Anderson. Bradbery said that's likely because those shots were fired with the fired earlier in the day, many neighbors weren't home to hear it.
Both weapons belonged to Asbury. The .22-caliber was registered to him. The him, Bradbery said.
Blacksburg's last murder was in 1991.
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