On the night of February 27, 1993, 45-year-old Morris Keller and his wife Mary Elizabeth Keller were victims of a home invasion in Cumberland, Virginia that ended in a double murder. Two men, Michael Wayne Williams and Jeffrey Alan Cruse, had intended to rob a market, found it closed, and instead forced their way into the Kellers’ home armed with a .357 caliber revolver. The intruders bound the couple, placed them in separate closets, and ransacked the house. Mary Elizabeth Keller was sexually assaulted by both men. The pair then took the Kellers to a nearby wooded area, where Williams shot Morris Keller and Cruse shot Mary Elizabeth Keller; Williams shot Morris again when he tried to rise. The assailants set the house on fire and fled in the couple’s Jeep.

Investigators arrested Michael Wayne Williams and Jeffrey Alan Cruse. Williams was tried in connection with the Kellers’ deaths; in January 1994 a jury convicted him on all charges including capital murder, burglary, rape, arson, robbery and abduction and sentenced him to death, citing future dangerousness and the vileness of his actions. Cruse testified against Williams and received a life sentence for his role. Anyone with information about the Kellers or that night is asked to come forward.