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A Scream in the Dark: Chapter 4 - The Investigation

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A Lee Enterprises, Incorporated newspaper. Majority shareholder: David Hoffmann, Hoffmann Media Group.

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A Scream in the Dark: Chapter 4 - The Investigation

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2016XXXXg_nws_French_day 4_sheriff page handgun

Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page holds a photo of a 9 mm Hi-Point handgun similar to the model of handgun used to shoot Troy and LaDonna French.

2016xxxxg_nws_french_day 4_mccollum store

Rockingham County sheriff investigators confiscated surveillance video from McCollum’s store on Highway 158 in Rockingham County on Feb. 1, 2016.

The footage was recorded between 10 p.m. and midnight on Feb. 3, the night before the murders. Neither investigators nor store clerks will comment on what is contained in that footage or why investigators sought it.

Sheriff Sam Page holds a photo of a Hi-Point 9mm handgun similar to the one used to kill Troy and LaDonna French in their homes in February 2012.

Sheriff Sam Page says the gun used to kill Troy French and LaDonna French was a 9 mm pistol that Troy discovered was missing in December 2011. “This was not a random act,” Page said.

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By Danielle Battaglia/News & Record

“Did you know Troy and LaDonna French?” Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page asked two reporters as he walked toward them early in the morning of Feb. 4, 2012. He was outside the Frenches’ home at the intersection of Brown and Pinewood roads, which had for the past several hours been a full-fledged crime scene.

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Contact Danielle Battaglia at (336) 373-4476, and follow @dbattaglianr on Twitter.

About the author, series

About the author

Danielle BattagliaDanielle Battaglia, 27, has covered courts and breaking news for the News & Record since 2014. Before that she spent 3.5 years as a general-assignment reporter for the Reidsville Review and Eden News in Rockingham County. She has covered the murders of Troy and LaDonna French since being awakened by a call from the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 4, 2012, the morning they died.

About this series

The investigation into the murders of Troy and LaDonna French in February 2012 became one of the most discussed and analyzed in Rockingham County history. For four years this case has been embroiled in cold frustration and shrouded in odd secrecy. In August 2015 Jose Alvarez Jr., brother-in-law of the Frenches’ daughter, was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder. The evidence supporting his arrest and the motives that would have suggested he committed the crime have not been discussed, and he remains held without bond in the Rockingham County Jail.

The News & Record has spent a year gathering information, talking to witnesses, pursuing and inspecting sometimes sketchy court records and legally wrangling for access to information. Some central sources – such as the former District Attorney Phil Berger Jr. and longtime Sheriff Sam Page – declined to be interviewed. Attempts to reach and interview Jose Alvarez Jr. at the jail were rebuffed by him and his defense counsel, Vincent Rabil. Whitley French Alvarez, the only known witness to the crime, declined to speak beyond interviews she gave shortly after the murders. Her husband, John, brother to the accused, declined to speak, as did other members of the French, Moseley and Alvarez families. Access to interview Hunter French, the dead couple’s son, was declined by his guardians. Other members of the extended French and Moseley families, LaDonna French’s family, agreed to be interviewed at various levels of access.

This narrative version of the French homicides is based on investigative records and interviews and the public comments made immediately following the murders.

Contributors

Editor: Kymberli Hagelberg

Photographs: H. Scott Hoffmann, Joe Rodriquez, Nelson Kepley

Video production: H. Scott Hoffmann, Joe Rodriguez, Nelson Kepley

Multimedia, print graphics: Tim Rickard

Page design: Ben Villarreal, David Hurt

Copy editing: Carolina Design Center

Multimedia presentation: Kymberli Hagelberg, John O’Neal

Continue reading the series

Timeline

October 2011: Troy French tells family members his Hi-Point 9mm handgun is missing.

January 2012: Whitley French begins classes at East Carolina University.

Feb. 3, 2012:

Feb. 4, 2012

Feb. 5, 2012: Donald Moseley, Kathy Moseley Hayes and four friends clean the house. They give a neighbor the bullet-riddled closet door to burn.

Feb. 7, 2012: The French and Moseley families receive guests during visitation at Reidsville Christian Church.

Feb. 8, 2012: At 3 p.m., the funeral for Troy and LaDonna French is held at the church, and the couple is buried at Sharon Baptist Church.

Feb. 8, 2012: Police return to the crime scene and discover that it has been cleaned and the door destroyed.

Feb. 9, 2012: Deputies interview Whitley French.

Feb. 10, 2012: Deputies have a reenactment of the shootings performed at the house.

Feb. 15, 2012: Deputies search French house.

Feb 28, 2012: Deputies search of Troy and LaDonna’s purse and wallet.

March 1, 2012: SBI releases trace gunshot residue tests to Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office.

March 8, 2012: The SBI releases results from a firearm comparison.

March 29, 2012: Security footage taken from McCollum’s Grocery Store, about 10 minutes from the crime scene.

May 2, 2012: Judge Massey seals a search warrant.

May 2012: Sheriff’s office submits evidence to the North Carolina State Crime Lab.

June 20, 2012: The FBI enhances copies of Whitley’s 911 call.

June 28, 2012: Deputies take new photos of Whitley French’s injuries to determine how well they have healed.

Oct. 3, 2012: The SBI releases DNA results to investigators.

Oct. 12, 2012: The SBI releases DNA touch results and other DNA results.

Oct. 29, 2012: Investigators meet with Kathy Moseley Hayes.

Oct. 30, 2012: Deputies hold a press conference announcing Troy and LaDonna French were killed with Troy’s 9 mm Hi-Point handgun and that DNA found near their bodies belongs to a man. Sheriff Sam Page announces Whitley and Hunter French and John Alvarez are ruled out as suspects.

Nov. 1, 2012: Judge Tony Grogan seals a search warrant.

Nov. 2012: Investigators submit evidence to the state crime lab.

Dec. 2012: Investigators submit evidence to the state crime lab.

Jan. 2, 2013: Sheriff Page sends a letter to outgoing Gov. Bev Perdue asking for a $5,000 reward because he says the case has gone cold.

Jan. 10, 2013: Investigators submit evidence to the state crime lab.

Jan. 22, 2013: New Gov. Pat McCrory offers $5,000 reward.

Jan. 31, 2013: Investigators submit evidence to the state crime lab.

Feb. 4, 2013: Sheriff Page holds press conference on 1-year anniversary and says no one has been ruled out as a suspect.

Feb. 28, 2013: Investigators submit evidence to the state crime lab.

April 8, 2013: SBI returns DNA analysis to investigators.

May 7, 2013: SBI returns results of blood analysis.

July 15, 2013: The SBI returns analysis of trace hair samples.

Sept. 16, 2013: Whitley French is interviewed by Greenville-Pitt County Sheriff’s Office at East Carolina University.

Dec. 12, 2013: Investigators submit evidence to the State Bureau of Investigation.

Dec. 15, 2013: Eden Police Department receives a cell phone believed to be stolen from the French house.

Dec. 18, 2013: The sheriff’s office interviews witnesses regarding the cell phone.

Feb. 10, 2014: Deputies receive warrant to search cell phone.

Feb. 10, 2014: Deputies search for shell casings at Paul Cockram’s house in Ridgeway, Va.

April 1, 2014: Whitley French and Shannon and Craig French are interviewed.

April 28, 2014: Investigators submit evidence to the SBI.

May 6, 2014: Craig Blitzer wins the Republican Primary to replace Phil Berger Jr. as the district attorney for Rockingham County. He is unopposed for the general election.

July 16, 2014: Hunter and Craig French are interviewed.

July 24, 2014: Investigators submit evidence to the SBI.

Aug. 19, 2014: Deputies execute a polygraph test on Kathy Moseley Hayes.

Aug. 20, 2014: Deputies execute a polygraph test on Hunter French.

Oct. 21, 2014: The SBI returns evidence regarding shell casings found in Ridgeway.

Oct. 31, 2014: Deputies receive lab report concluding that John Alvarez is somehow related to DNA found at the crime scene.

Jan. 1, 2015: Blitzer is sworn in as Rockingham DA.

May 11, 2015: Detectives take DNA samples from Jose Alvarez Sr. and Jose Alvarez Jr.

May 13, 2015: Investigators submit evidence to the SBI.

May 16, 2015: Whitley French and John Alvarez are married at Summerfield Farm.

May 18, 2015: Jose Alvarez Jr. moves to 2811 Cottage Place in Greensboro.

June 9, 2015: The SBI concludes all five blood drops match Jose Alvarez Jr.’s DNA.

July 1, 2015: Deputies visit 2811 Cottage Place in Greensboro.

Aug. 17, 2015: DNA is returned from the state crime lab.

Aug. 25, 2015: Jose Alvarez Jr. surrenders himself at the sheriff’s office.

Aug. 25, 2015: Judge Ed Wilson seals a search warrant.

Aug. 26, 2015: Alvarez Jr. appears in Rockingham County District Court.

Sept. 8, 2015: Jose Alvarez Jr. is indicted.

Sept. 9, 2015: Judge Stan Allen seals a search warrant.

Sept. 28, 2015: Judge Susan Bray schedules a death-penalty hearing for Jan. 1 or later.

Nov. 30, 2015: Jose Alvarez Jr. appears before Judge Ed Wilson for an administrative hearing to consider how certain evidence would be handled.

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2016XXXXg_nws_French_day 4_sheriff page handgun

Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page holds a photo of a 9 mm Hi-Point handgun similar to the model of handgun used to shoot Troy and LaDonna French.

Rockingham County sheriff investigators confiscated surveillance video from McCollum’s store on Highway 158 in Rockingham County on Feb. 1, 2016.

The footage was recorded between 10 p.m. and midnight on Feb. 3, the night before the murders. Neither investigators nor store clerks will comment on what is contained in that footage or why investigators sought it.

Sheriff Sam Page holds a photo of a Hi-Point 9mm handgun similar to the one used to kill Troy and LaDonna French in their homes in February 2012.

Sheriff Sam Page says the gun used to kill Troy French and LaDonna French was a 9 mm pistol that Troy discovered was missing in December 2011. “This was not a random act,” Page said.

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