Virginia: Friends Of Suspect Who Murdered His Ex- Wife And Her Mother Cannot Believe It's The Same Person They Knew...
Slimpickins
Slim
I
It's hard to believe . . .' / Friends barely recognize suspect as person
they knew
Saturday, July 8, 2000
BY KATHRYN ORTH
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
FARMVILLE -- The Reginald Varner everyone in this small town knew years ago
was not the same man who now stands accused of killing his ex-wife and her
mother, friends said yesterday.
Even police officers who had known him since childhood hardly recognized the
wild-haired, bearded man who was arrested Wednesday night and charged with
capital murder in the deaths of Susan Varner and her mother, Suzanne Arena.
Varner was arrested after a Farmville police officer
stopped him for speeding about 6 p.m. Wednesday and saw blood on his hands
and on an ax on the front seat of the car.
Suzanne Arena was found by her husband shortly after 6 p.m., bludgeoned to
death in their home on state Route 696 east of Farmville. Her daughter was
found half an hour later, dead on the floor of her home off state Route 45
in Cumberland County, just yards north of the Farmville town limits.
"It's hard to believe this human being is the same guy I went to high school
with," said Elliott Irving, news director for radio station WFLO, when he
saw the photo of Varner taken Wednesday at Piedmont Regional Jail. Irving
attended Cumberland High School with Varner in the 1960s and played on the
football team with him.
Irving remembered Varner from high school as a multisport athlete, an active
member of the Future Farmers of America and a clean-cut kid with a great
sense of humor.
"I always thought the world of him. He loved to have fun, but he was very
respectful of everybody. He
was a happy type," Irving said.
Susan Varner's sister, Dorothy Brockert, of Washington, remembered her
former brother-in-law as both a kind and a handsome person.
"I liked him a lot. He was a gorgeous man, like the Marlboro man. You felt
comfortable with Reggie. This was not a violent man," she said. Reginald and
Susan Varner separated in 1994 after 16 years of marriage and divorced in
1998. They had one son together. Each had a daughter from a previous
marriage.
Reginald Varner was active in church work and Bible study groups in
Farmville in the early 1990s, and friends knew him as a God-fearing,
kind-hearted, gentle man, said Mark and Kari Murphy of Midlothian, who were
members of a Bible study group with the Varners when the Murphys lived in
the Farmville area.
"He was a very nice guy. He was clean-shaven and had closely cut hair. He
was very spiritually minded," said Mark Murphy. Kari Murphy treasures a
picture of the Varners taken at the Murphys' wedding in 1993.
"The photos I have seen on the news bear no relation to the man my husband
and I knew several years ago. Something must have gone terribly wrong. . . .
Not only has the community lost two dear women, but somewhere in the past
seven years, we lost a dear man as well," Kari Murphy wrote in an e-mail to
The Times-Dispatch yesterday.
Sometime in the mid-1990s, about the time the Varners separated, things
started to go bad for Reginald Varner.
His interest in religion intensified, and he attempted to establish his own
church near Hampden-Sydney, friends said.
"He opened up a church south of town and was preaching there. It was an
independent-type thing. Reggie just felt like the Lord had called him. There
was definitely a change toward the religious-fanatic side," said Gene
Watson.
Then Reginald Varner attempted suicide and was hospitalized, Brockert said.
"After that, he let himself go in appearance. He looked like the wrath of
God. He got a little better, but he was never himself again," Brockert said
of her former brother-in-law.
Susan Varner was never afraid of her husband, her sister said, and was
distraught about filing for divorce. "She loved him a lot . . . but Reggie's
decline into what I call madness" caused the separation, Brockert said.
Although they were happy together for at least 10 years of their marriage,
the Varners had differences, Brockert said. "[Reginald] did not like the
antiques business. He didn't like Sue doing that. She was always in New York
with my mother. He just didn't like Sue's lifestyle. They were so
different."
Susan Varner and her mother owned Suzi's Antiques on Main Street in
Farmville. The shop specializes in vintage clothing and provides antique
clothing for television and stage productions and movies, including
"Titanic." The two women made frequent trips around the country and to
Europe to buy and exhibit antique clothing, lace and quilts.
Reginald Varner has always loved farming and raised tobacco for many years
in Cumberland County. He also has worked construction and carpet-laying
jobs, friends said.
After the divorce, Reginald Varner retreated from the world, Brockert said,
and many old friends did not even know he was still in the area until
Wednesday, when the news of the women's deaths and Varner's arrest shocked
the town.
The Varner family, in a statement issued through Reginald Varner's attorney,
Khalil Latif, expressed their deep sorrow and grief over the deaths of Susan
Varner and Suzanne Arena.
"There are many questions that may never be answered to the satisfaction of
loved ones. Before Reggie's mental problems several years ago, he was known
as a mild-mannered and kind man, a productive farmer in the community. We
ask your continued prayers for all concerned," the statement read.
Reginald Varner was recently insitutionalized, Latif said.
Latif said he and attorney Lucretia Carrico of Powhatan County, who also
represents Varner, will ask the court for a psychiatric evaluation of him.
"It's so awful, those three people's lives," said Dorothy Brockert,
including her former brother-in-law with her mother and sister. "My poor
sister, she loved life. . . . but I do feel sorry for Reggie. How can I
not?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Contact Kathryn Orth at (804) 392-6605 or ko...@timesdispatch.com.
Times-Dispatch staff writers Ruth S. Intress and Jamie C. Ruff contributed
to this report.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/virginia/fville08.shtml
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
© 2000, Richmond Newspapers Inc.
satisp...@my-deja.com
such a nice guy.' i've heard it described as the mask of sanity --
meaning the facade that these sociopaths wear that nobody sees through
until it is too late.
are there ever any signs and if so, what?
he finds God, he gets crazed... wonder what was going on in his head.
how did he rationalize it to himself?
diana
In article <8k811i$2k7$1...@news.fsu.edu>,
> Š 2000, Richmond Newspapers Inc.
>
>
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
S.B.Wells
with the onset probably within the last seven to ten years.
He might be schizophrenic or have a lesion on the brain.