Florence Marie Marks, 54, was a county bookkeeper described as compassionate and willing to help people in need. She had allowed her 20-year-old cousin Cris J. Beck to stay in her Alexandria apartment for several months, but family and friends said Beck had a violent temper and that repeated disputes led to him being forced out. Marks also suspected Beck of stealing jewelry from her.

Police say the dispute culminated in a shooting at a rooming house on the 2000 block of South Fillmore Street in Arlington that left Marks and two other men dead: her friend William Miller and Congressional Quarterly reporter and editor David Stuart Kaplan, who investigators believe returned home at the wrong time. Authorities contacted Beck at his mother’s home in Philadelphia; after an interview there his account reportedly changed and he made statements about the case. Miller’s Nissan Maxima was recovered in Philadelphia with several guns inside, and Beck was charged with first-degree murder in Kaplan’s death and held without bail while prosecutors prepared additional charges.

Did anyone who knew Florence or her living situation notice tensions with Beck or any changes in her routine before the killings?