LEESBURG, Va. – The man Alexandria police want to question in connection with three high-profile murders made his first appearance in Virginia Tuesday.
Charles Severance, 53, greeted the Loudoun County district judge on closed circuit TV, dressed in an orange shirt. He answered Judge J. Frank Buttery’s questions but said little during the hearing.
A capital defender introduced himself as Severance’s attorney, who Commonwealth’s attorney Jim Plowman questioned for the record. He said later it was “odd” that Severance wasn’t represented by a court-appointed public defender.
After hearing Plowman’s request for more time to subpoena out-of-state witnesses regarding Severance’s possession of a weapon charge, the judge set his preliminary hearing date for June 18.
Severance was extradited from West Virginia on Monday where he was held since March on unrelated gun charges. The booking officer at that facility says he was picked up by U.S. Marshals around 2 p.m. Monday.
Severance is now being held without bond at the Adult Detention Center in Leesburg, Va.
Alexandria police haven’t named Severance as a suspect in the unsolved homicides of Nancy Dunning, Ron Kirby and Ruthanne Lodato, but say they want to talk with him in connection to the murders.
Investigators have searched his home and the lake behind his parents’ home on warrants associated with the crimes.
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