Charles City County

9200 Holly Tree Lane, Charles City County

Gunshot

Domestic

Murder-suicide suspected in Charles City
By Bill Mckelway

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Charles City County authorities believe that a man and woman who occasionally shared a home near Adkins Store died in a murder-suicide incident.
“We are still investigating, but there was no sign of forced entry,” Charles City Sheriff Javier J. Smith said yesterday.

Smith identified the two victims as Maxine Thomas, 60, and Vernon Miles Sr., 74.

Thomas lived alone in the home in the 9200 block of Holly Tree Lane where the two bodies were found Monday afternoon; she was in bed clothes and Miles was in work clothes, the sheriff said.

Investigators recovered a handgun at the scene but are awaiting findings from the state medical examiner’s office before making any statement about who may have fired the gun and when the shootings occurred.

Smith said the shootings apparently took place sometime Sunday, but neighbors did not hear gunshots and the discovery of the bodies came Monday.

Thomas was an employee of Nabisco Inc. on Laburnum Avenue in Henrico County and Miles was a handyman in the Adkins Store area of Charles City.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete yesterday.