Available at 
Tweet
One of my best friend's friends was murdered on Saturday in a shopping center near her home. My friend is having a hard time dealing with this tragedy so please pray/vibe for my friend and this poor girl's family, husband, and friends. 
The article is here: http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.c ... &ran=58091
The article is here: http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.c ... &ran=58091
By DUANE BOURNE AND LAUREN ROTH, The Virginian-Pilot
© November 14, 2006 | Last updated 5:53 PM Nov. 14
VIRGINIA BEACH — Police investigating the killing of a 25-year-old woman at a trendy Hilltop shopping center over the weekend used her stolen cell phone to track down the suspect.
Hours after Elisabeth Kelly Reilly was shot to death, her cell phone’s global-positioning feature led detectives to 2315 Lafayette Blvd. in Norfolk.
Behind the home there, authorities found Reilly’s cell phone and purse as well as a gray, blood-stained hooded sweatshirt, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in court.
In the home, a woman told investigators she had loaned her white Mitsubishi Galant to her boyfriend, Christopher Hagans.
A few miles away, police found the car parked on Olney Road with blood on the driver’s side door, according to the search warrant affidavit.
Shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, Hagans was arrested as he approached the car.
Hagans, who lives at 584 Nicholson St. in Norfolk, is being held at Virginia Beach Correctional Center without bail on charges of murder and robbery. A bond hearing is set for Nov. 27 and a preliminary hearing for Jan. 4.
On Monday, as family and friends mourned Reilly – a newlywed who lived in Virginia Beach’s North End – shoppers were wary about their safety after hearing about the second act of violence at Beach shopping centers in a month.
“You don’t think something’s going to happen when you go shopping in the middle of the day,” said Kari Mellenkamp of Virginia Beach, who stood Monday with two friends outside Pembroke Mall, where a woman was abducted last month.
The Hilltop shooting occurred about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Reilly – who went by Kelly, her middle name – had just finished shopping at Stein Mart at Hilltop North Shopping Center and was walking to her car when a gunman robbed her, shot her and left her on the pavement, Beach police spokeswoman Rene Ball said.
Reilly, a sales manager at Auto Mart, grew up in the West Ghent section of Norfolk. Her maiden name was King, and she was the granddaughter of Harvey Lindsay, one of the area’s top commercial real estate developers and managers.
She was married in July and had planned to go on vacation with her husband this week.
Hagans ultimately could be charged with capital murder, punishable by death, because her killing was committed during a robbery. Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant said no decision on the charge has been made yet.
Police are looking into whether Hagans was involved in other crimes in Virginia Beach, including the abduction of a woman from a Pembroke Mall parking lot a month ago.
On the morning of Oct. 14, a woman at the mall was grabbed from behind and forced into the back seat of her car, where she was physically assaulted, police said. The suspect stole her purse and drove her to an unknown area in Norfolk, where she was allowed to leave.
The woman described her attacker as a man with a gray hooded sweatshirt and tattoos on his neck.
Hagans has had several nonviolent brushes with the law. He was out on bail with cases pending in three courts.
Court filings show that Hagans lived with his mother and worked at General Foam Plastic, making $160 a week. He completed 11th grade at Maury High School and has tattoos on both hands, according to his booking and fingerprint papers.
In January, Hagans was arrested in Virginia Beach and charged with receiving stolen goods – a black Honda Civic. Court records say Hagans and a friend got the car from a girl for $20.
A trooper pulled the car over on Interstate 264 near Witchduck Road and found a .380 semiautomatic handgun that had been stolen from Chesapeake, according to court records. In March, Hagans pleaded guilty and received a three-year suspended sentence.
Two months later, he was arrested in Chesapeake for receiving stolen property – a 2005 Acura TSX, according to a police complaint. The trial on that charge was set to begin today. Hagans also faces a trespassing charge in Norfolk. That case is scheduled to be heard next week.
The Hilltop shooting and Pembroke Mall abduction have left some shoppers on edge. The former occurred in early evening; the latter before noon.
Nicole Person of Norfolk, shopping Monday at Pembroke Mall with relatives, said she naturally gets more cautious around the holidays because of increased robberies. “I don’t usually come at night,” she said. “I try to do my shopping during the day.”
Mall and shopping center managers say they increase security around the holidays.
At Hilltop, security was beefed up starting Monday. “We recognize what happened was a tragic event,” said Rob Stanton , director of shopping center management for S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co., which manages Hilltop. “This is to address any concerns customers and tenants will have.”
Through the holidays, the shopping center is increasing the number and hours of its security patrol. Guards will be on foot and in modified golf carts with light bars.
At Janaf Shopping Center on Military Highway in Norfolk, property manager Diane O’Brien said bike patrols by city police will start in the next few weeks, at the same time they do each holiday season.
At Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach, bike, foot and car patrols will be bolstered by a new indoor-outdoor closed-circuit camera system that is monitored 24 hours a day, said marketing manager Logan Anderson.
In the parking lot of Pembroke Mall , some shoppers said they don’t see the point in worrying.
“There’s a police car sitting right there,” said shopper Jennie Maynard of Virginia Beach, nodding toward a city police car parked near the food court. “But even if there wasn’t, I feel like there are enough people around. You can’t stop living life because stuff happens.”
© November 14, 2006 | Last updated 5:53 PM Nov. 14
VIRGINIA BEACH — Police investigating the killing of a 25-year-old woman at a trendy Hilltop shopping center over the weekend used her stolen cell phone to track down the suspect.
Hours after Elisabeth Kelly Reilly was shot to death, her cell phone’s global-positioning feature led detectives to 2315 Lafayette Blvd. in Norfolk.
Behind the home there, authorities found Reilly’s cell phone and purse as well as a gray, blood-stained hooded sweatshirt, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in court.
In the home, a woman told investigators she had loaned her white Mitsubishi Galant to her boyfriend, Christopher Hagans.
A few miles away, police found the car parked on Olney Road with blood on the driver’s side door, according to the search warrant affidavit.
Shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, Hagans was arrested as he approached the car.
Hagans, who lives at 584 Nicholson St. in Norfolk, is being held at Virginia Beach Correctional Center without bail on charges of murder and robbery. A bond hearing is set for Nov. 27 and a preliminary hearing for Jan. 4.
On Monday, as family and friends mourned Reilly – a newlywed who lived in Virginia Beach’s North End – shoppers were wary about their safety after hearing about the second act of violence at Beach shopping centers in a month.
“You don’t think something’s going to happen when you go shopping in the middle of the day,” said Kari Mellenkamp of Virginia Beach, who stood Monday with two friends outside Pembroke Mall, where a woman was abducted last month.
The Hilltop shooting occurred about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Reilly – who went by Kelly, her middle name – had just finished shopping at Stein Mart at Hilltop North Shopping Center and was walking to her car when a gunman robbed her, shot her and left her on the pavement, Beach police spokeswoman Rene Ball said.
Reilly, a sales manager at Auto Mart, grew up in the West Ghent section of Norfolk. Her maiden name was King, and she was the granddaughter of Harvey Lindsay, one of the area’s top commercial real estate developers and managers.
She was married in July and had planned to go on vacation with her husband this week.
Hagans ultimately could be charged with capital murder, punishable by death, because her killing was committed during a robbery. Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant said no decision on the charge has been made yet.
Police are looking into whether Hagans was involved in other crimes in Virginia Beach, including the abduction of a woman from a Pembroke Mall parking lot a month ago.
On the morning of Oct. 14, a woman at the mall was grabbed from behind and forced into the back seat of her car, where she was physically assaulted, police said. The suspect stole her purse and drove her to an unknown area in Norfolk, where she was allowed to leave.
The woman described her attacker as a man with a gray hooded sweatshirt and tattoos on his neck.
Hagans has had several nonviolent brushes with the law. He was out on bail with cases pending in three courts.
Court filings show that Hagans lived with his mother and worked at General Foam Plastic, making $160 a week. He completed 11th grade at Maury High School and has tattoos on both hands, according to his booking and fingerprint papers.
In January, Hagans was arrested in Virginia Beach and charged with receiving stolen goods – a black Honda Civic. Court records say Hagans and a friend got the car from a girl for $20.
A trooper pulled the car over on Interstate 264 near Witchduck Road and found a .380 semiautomatic handgun that had been stolen from Chesapeake, according to court records. In March, Hagans pleaded guilty and received a three-year suspended sentence.
Two months later, he was arrested in Chesapeake for receiving stolen property – a 2005 Acura TSX, according to a police complaint. The trial on that charge was set to begin today. Hagans also faces a trespassing charge in Norfolk. That case is scheduled to be heard next week.
The Hilltop shooting and Pembroke Mall abduction have left some shoppers on edge. The former occurred in early evening; the latter before noon.
Nicole Person of Norfolk, shopping Monday at Pembroke Mall with relatives, said she naturally gets more cautious around the holidays because of increased robberies. “I don’t usually come at night,” she said. “I try to do my shopping during the day.”
Mall and shopping center managers say they increase security around the holidays.
At Hilltop, security was beefed up starting Monday. “We recognize what happened was a tragic event,” said Rob Stanton , director of shopping center management for S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co., which manages Hilltop. “This is to address any concerns customers and tenants will have.”
Through the holidays, the shopping center is increasing the number and hours of its security patrol. Guards will be on foot and in modified golf carts with light bars.
At Janaf Shopping Center on Military Highway in Norfolk, property manager Diane O’Brien said bike patrols by city police will start in the next few weeks, at the same time they do each holiday season.
At Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach, bike, foot and car patrols will be bolstered by a new indoor-outdoor closed-circuit camera system that is monitored 24 hours a day, said marketing manager Logan Anderson.
In the parking lot of Pembroke Mall , some shoppers said they don’t see the point in worrying.
“There’s a police car sitting right there,” said shopper Jennie Maynard of Virginia Beach, nodding toward a city police car parked near the food court. “But even if there wasn’t, I feel like there are enough people around. You can’t stop living life because stuff happens.”
Will definitely be thinking of her family and friends.
Comment