On May 13, 1983, 77-year-old Myra C. Adkins and her 77-year-old husband, Graham Adkins, were found dead after their Charles City County home was set on fire. Investigators determined the fire had been intentionally set and that both had been killed in the course of the blaze. Graham Adkins had been fatally shot in the face. Myra Adkins had been bound and gagged, suffered a series of vicious assaults, and was shot in the face at close range with a .25 caliber gun before being left in a closet; her immediate cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning from smoke inhalation. An empty safe was recovered from the house, and robbery was identified as a possible motive.

Willie Leroy Jones, who was known to the couple, was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder for the killings committed during an armed robbery and for the premeditated killing of more than one person. A jury convicted Jones on both counts and, after finding the murders involved torture and depravity of mind, sentenced him to death for each killing; the trial court upheld the verdicts and the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed the convictions and sentences.

If anyone knew the Adkinses, their routines, or saw anyone around their property in May 1983, please share what is remembered.