In an emotional day in court Thursday, the son of a former Alexandria sheriff remembered the day that his father found himself on the other side of a frantic 911 call.
"My wife has been killed," then-Sheriff James Dunning said in a call to 911 on Dec. 5, 2003. The call was played in court Thursday.
"She's lying in a pool of blood ... there is blood everywhere ... Oh, please hurry!"
Dunning's wife, Nancy, was in the hallway of her home. Her son, Chris, found her there after she didn't show up for lunch with her husband and son.
"I ran over to her and there was blood on her face," Chris said in court.
Chris Dunning got on the phone with 911 and screamed: "Somebody attacked my mother ... I need help now ... Oh, my God! Oh my God!" Then, his father took over the 911 call.
Nancy Dunning is one of three people that prosecutors say was killed by suspected serial killer Charles Severance over the course of a decade. All three of the victims were part of well-known families in Alexandria, Virginia and lived near each other.
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Severance is facing a total of 10 charges relating to the deaths.
The 911 call played in court was among the evidence that prosecutors presented Thursday.
Jim Dunning died in July 2012 after retiring to Hilton Head, South Carolina; as his call was played, many of Dunning's friends and family in the courtroom bowed their heads and cried.
Chris said that when he heard his father say on the 911 call that his mother had been murdered, he feared the killer could still be in the house. He grabbed a kitchen knife, he said.
Chris Dunning's testimony followed testimony about the murder of Ron Kirby, a well-known transportation planner, almost 10 years later. Head hair and facial hair found at the Kirby murder scene did not match Severance's, testimony Thursday revealed.
An FBI analyst said it's rare to find a murder suspect's hair at a scene if the suspect had not physically contacted the victim.
