On New Year’s Day 1995, five people were killed in a mass shooting at apartments in Roanoke’s Old Southwest neighborhood. Among the victims was 44-year-old Susan Lynne Hutchinson, who lived on the second floor of 41/2 Street Southwest and was attending a New Year’s celebration that included neighbors and friends. Hutchinson was killed at the gathering along with her roommate, 36-year-old Dale J. Arnold, and three others: Cynthia Ann LaPrade, 43; Carl Lee Stroop, 42; and Daniel Barry Mason, 58.

Police identified a next-door neighbor, 27-year-old Robert Michael May, as a suspect and arrested him. Authorities say May confessed and that a Roanoke grand jury later indicted him on capital murder for Hutchinson’s death and on four counts of first-degree murder for the other victims; investigators reported May had retrieved a .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol before the shootings. Hutchinson had lived with Arnold for two years and was described as a mother, daughter, and sister.