Crime + investigation
Alyssa Venable eventually pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder for the events featured on A&E's Crime in Progress.
Getty Images/Image SourceA Virginia woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for the triple murders of her roommates.
Alyssa Venable, 25, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder in February 2025. Her cold-blooded murder spree followed by a tense two-day, multi-state manhunt is the subject of the second episode of the series Crime in Progress on A&E. The story is told exclusively through raw police body-cam footage.
Crime in Progress
"Crime in Progress" follows the evolution of investigations in real time, told exclusively through raw body cam, dash cam and surveillance footage.
On the night of June 4, 2024, deputies with the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about a suspected deceased man on a couch, according to police records obtained by A&E Crime + Investigation. The caller stated his roommate was unconscious on the sofa with a pillow over his head.
A total of five people lived at the Fredericksburg, Va., home.
Deputies entered the house and confirmed 77-year-old Robert “Professor” McGuire, a Vietnam War veteran and father, was dead with a gunshot wound to the head.
Sixty-five-year-old avid volunteer Carol Anne Reese and 60-year-old U.S. Navy veteran Gregory Powell were also found shot to death on the property during a more extensive sweep of the home. Reese’s body was discovered in the bathroom, while Powell’s body was located beneath a mattress in the garage.
The only other person who lived at the house and was unaccounted for was Venable, who moved in one month prior to the deadly incident, her roommate said.
As investigators attempted to track Venable down that night, they received a call from her best friend, Kayla Barton, who claimed Venable left a suicide note in Barton’s mother’s mailbox.
Det. Steve Norris and Barton agreed to meet at the sheriff’s office for questioning.
“There’s three dead people in that house,” Norris told Barton.
“I think she did it,” she responded.
Barton explained that Venable confessed to a mutual friend that day that she had “killed some people.”
“He made the gun motion when he told me,” Barton said. “He told me that it was a bad idea to go to the house because he’s pretty sure that’s what had happened.”
According to police reports, Barton claimed Venable had a history of mental illness and had access to a firearm that was gifted to her by her grandfather.
Investigators made contact with Venable’s sister, mother and grandmother, who all alleged they were unaware of the murders and Venable’s whereabouts. Venable’s sister and mom admitted they both had a rocky relationship with her.
The story is told in A&E's brand-new series, 'Crime in Progress'.
The story is told in A&E's brand-new series, 'Crime in Progress'.
Two days later, state troopers in Steuben County, N.Y., spotted Venable’s gray Honda Civic at a rest stop off Interstate 86. Troopers attempted to initiate a traffic stop, and Venable led them on a short, high-speed pursuit. The chase ended when troopers deployed spike strips that punctured her tires, causing her to crash into a guard rail. Authorities then took her into custody.
At the crash scene, troopers recovered the .22 handgun believed to be the murder weapon, leading to three second-degree murder charges against Venable. Prescription pills belonging to Powell, Reese’s ID, a book on serial killers, a bag of sex toys, a hat and a pair of binoculars were also recovered from the vehicle, according to police records obtained by A&E Crime + Investigation.
Two months after the killings, investigators spoke with Venable’s jail cellmate, Casey Johnson, who claimed she had intel on the case.
“She had murder on her mind long before she moved in the house with these people, because she was gonna kill her sister and the sister’s husband or boyfriend first,” Johnson told Harris. “She didn’t have no reason.”
Johnson alleged Venable also intended to kill the surviving roommate, who wasn’t at home at the time of the murders, as well as their landlord, per police records.
“She [Venable] told Casey [Johnson] her motive was she always wanted to kill someone" after playing a violent video game, Harris wrote in his report. “She confirmed that the victims did nothing to her.”
Citing his conversation with Johnson, Harris wrote Venable was headed to New York to have sex with a man “and slit his throat" before making her way to California. She also had plans to kill her sister and her sister’s husband.
A medical examiner determined each of the victims were shot within point-blank range. McGuire and Powell were shot once in the head, while Reese sustained gunshot wounds to the head and chest, police reports read.
Venable was sentenced to 99 years in prison at the Fluvanna Correctional Center in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections.
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Tristan Balagtas is a Las Vegas-based crime writer and reporter. She previously reported for People and TV news stations in Washington and Texas. Tristan graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
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