Investigators believe a Fishersville woman was shot while she was sleeping on Sunday morning. Details about the apparent murder-suicide have been slowly coming in, as the Augusta County Sheriff's Office looks into the tragic case.
The sheriff's office says the double shooting was the result of a domestic dispute. It left 22-year-old Rasheda Levette Alestock and 23-year-old Regina Annette Claud dead of gunshot wounds to the head. The shots were fired around 8:00 Sunday morning.
Moments before, a roommate of the two women made the 911 call. Deputies and state police were called to the three-story apartment on Bolton Place in Fishersville, and quickly labeled the case as a murder-suicide.
Brian Jenkins, an investigator with the Augusta County Sheriff's Office, said, "The scene tells the tale of what occurred... the physical evidence, the shell casings, the weapon and things of this nature."
The sheriff's office says Claud pulled the trigger twice, killing herself moments after taking the life of Alestock, her roommate.
"There was a female who was shot and killed - it appeared - while she was sleeping in the bed. And then the other female was deceased at the bottom of the steps. And there was a weapon recovered by the second female," explained Jenkins.
The sheriff's office says Claud and Alestock had moved to the Fishersville apartment less than a month before the shooting, but had known each other for at least two years. Jenkins says the women had been arguing in the weeks leading up to their deaths.
News of the shootings quickly spread across social media sites. Jenkins says anonymous, filter-less postings can sometimes impede an investigation, but Internet contacts can also tell a valuable tale.
"We're walking into a situation not knowing any of the involved parties... and we're trying to come up to speed on who they are, what was going on... what led up to us being there," said Jenkins.
Sunday's murder in Fishersville was Augusta County's first since July of last year. That one also was the result of an ongoing domestic dispute.
Rasheda Alestock, 22
Regina Claud, 23
