On the night of April 17, 2024, 38-year-old Alison Kate LaPorta of Lorton, Virginia, was fatally shot. Her boyfriend, 47-year-old Huy Tien Nguyen, drove her to Inova Mount Vernon Hospital about 11:35 p.m. with a gunshot wound to her upper body; she was later transferred to Inova Fairfax Hospital and pronounced dead. Friends and family remembered the mother of two as spunky, fun, and a friend to all. She worked at the Fort Hunt Safeway in Alexandria.

Initial statements by Nguyen said LaPorta had been struck by a stray bullet in an Annandale parking lot, but investigators determined the couple had not been in Annandale and that the shooting occurred inside a vehicle. Detectives later located a firearm near Nguyen’s home in Lorton. In the period before her death, LaPorta sent texts to a relative expressing fear of Nguyen and saying he had previously fired shots near her.

Nguyen was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and was held without bond. Defense attorneys contended LaPorta shot herself, while prosecutors presented evidence including the bullet’s trajectory and an imprint of the firearm on LaPorta’s seatbelt indicating Nguyen was the shooter. Does anyone have information about the couple’s movements that night or knew Kate and can help clarify what happened?