After arriving home from Sun Valley, Becca was informed about what was going down on the Shenandoah National Park. Missy was already on the park, enjoying a 2 hour round trip hike with her boyfriend. I had heard several different renditions of what happened and slowly the truth is starting to come out. It's a little preverse and sad, but all in all this 25 year old kid was mentally ill. I can't judge him, but I hope God has mercy. According to some friends, what happened here is what is called Murder by Cop Suicide. It's when you can't actually pull the trigger yourself, so you point to a cop and they do it for you. Very sad. Read on.
By Kate WiltroutThe Virginian-Pilot© March 13, 2009
Spc. Christopher Lanum loved the Joker, the character from Batman.
There were Joker posters and Joker masks in his barracks room at Fort Eustis.
Early Sunday morning, Lanum cleaned his knives and told his girlfriend, Patsy Ann Marie Montowski, that he was "preparing for war." He'd told her that before, but this time he was dressing the part, putting on a Joker costume he'd worn for Halloween.
He dictated a good bye note to his daughter; Montowski wrote one to her own children. The letter, labeled "To our families and friends," also contained messages to both their parents.
The letter was found hours later in Lanum's car at Fort Eustis, after the couple allegedly attacked Spc. Mitchell Stone, a soldier who shared a suite with Lanum in Building 696 at the Newport News post.
After allegedly slashing Stone's throat and shocking him repeatedly with a stun gun, Lanum fled with Montowski in her minivan with a 12-gauge shotgun, several knives and a bloody razor.
Stone was taken by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital with serious injuries.
As Montowski drove west across Virginia, Lanum painted his face to look like the Joker.
Hours later, after leading police on a slow-speed chase through the serpentine roads of Shenandoah National Park, Lanum - a 25-year-old combat medic who had served 15 months in Iraq - was shot dead.
Montowski appeared Thursday in federal court in Norfolk. She is charged with being an accessory after the fact to Lanum's alleged assault on Stone.
Relatives of Lanum and Montowski declined to comment Thursday.
An affidavit filed Wednesday in federal court describes in detail the couple's alleged actions. The nine-page document, written by an FBI agent, includes information from interviews with Stone and Montowski, as well as descriptions of rooms 258 and 259 in the Fort Eustis barracks where Stone and Lanum lived.
Montowski, who was wounded slightly in the shootout, told investigators that the trouble started after she left Lanum's barracks room to get cigarettes out of her car.
She told them Lanum, who had been cleaning his knives, refused to let her back into his room. So she knocked on Stone's door and asked if she could pass through his room to the common area he shared with Lanum.
The men began arguing, she said, and a full fight ensued.
Stone, who Fort Eustis officials said Thursday has been released from the hospital, told an FBI agent that Lanum shocked him three times with the stun gun before he fought back and ended up wrestling Lanum on the floor. Stone said Lanum urged Montowski to use the stun gun, and she shocked him four more times before he was able to free himself.
As he tried to open the door and flee, Lanum came from behind and cut his throat, Stone said. Stone made it to the first floor of the building, where he told base EMS personnel that Lanum had attacked him right after Lanum's girlfriend passed through his room.
Fort Eustis MPs found blood spatter on the walls, floors and furniture, and a knife and loaded .45 caliber handgun on the floor of the common room. A blood-covered stun gun was on the floor of Stone's room. Hanging on a bedpost in Lanum's room was a purse with Montowski's driver's license inside.
Fort Eustis officials said Lanum, who returned from Iraq in September 2007, had been stationed at the base since November. Both he and Stone were assigned to the post's health clinic. The 600 uniformed and civilian employees of the clinic have been offered counseling, said Karla Gonzalez, the base public affairs officer.
Gonzalez said she had no information about whether Lanum, a combat veteran, had sought counseling or was receiving any type of treatment at Fort Eustis.
The base is about to finish a month-long safety stand-down focused on preventing suicide.
It isn't clear whether Lanum intended to harm himself or expected to die. Montowski said that in the letter he dictated to his daughter, Andrea, before the assault, he said he could not explain his actions.
Montowski told agents that she also wrote a good bye note to her children, but it was not a suicide note and she did so only because Lanum did.
She told the agents that after the chase, Lanum tried to kill himself with a shotgun. At one point, he handed her the gun and asked her to shoot him, but she threw the gun down.
According to the park rangers and Virginia State Police troopers involved in the chase, Lanum had the shotgun pointed at the officers who approached the driver's side. His finger was on the trigger, and the affidavit said that he refused repeated demands to put down the gun.
One trooper fired through the window, and Lanum's shotgun discharged. He was struck several times and was declared dead at the scene. It is unclear who fired the fatal shots.
Funeral services are scheduled for today for Lanum, who was born in Portsmouth and later attended Kellam High School in Virginia Beach.
Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com
By Kate WiltroutThe Virginian-Pilot© March 13, 2009
Spc. Christopher Lanum loved the Joker, the character from Batman.
There were Joker posters and Joker masks in his barracks room at Fort Eustis.
Early Sunday morning, Lanum cleaned his knives and told his girlfriend, Patsy Ann Marie Montowski, that he was "preparing for war." He'd told her that before, but this time he was dressing the part, putting on a Joker costume he'd worn for Halloween.
He dictated a good bye note to his daughter; Montowski wrote one to her own children. The letter, labeled "To our families and friends," also contained messages to both their parents.
The letter was found hours later in Lanum's car at Fort Eustis, after the couple allegedly attacked Spc. Mitchell Stone, a soldier who shared a suite with Lanum in Building 696 at the Newport News post.
After allegedly slashing Stone's throat and shocking him repeatedly with a stun gun, Lanum fled with Montowski in her minivan with a 12-gauge shotgun, several knives and a bloody razor.
Stone was taken by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital with serious injuries.
As Montowski drove west across Virginia, Lanum painted his face to look like the Joker.
Hours later, after leading police on a slow-speed chase through the serpentine roads of Shenandoah National Park, Lanum - a 25-year-old combat medic who had served 15 months in Iraq - was shot dead.
Montowski appeared Thursday in federal court in Norfolk. She is charged with being an accessory after the fact to Lanum's alleged assault on Stone.
Relatives of Lanum and Montowski declined to comment Thursday.
An affidavit filed Wednesday in federal court describes in detail the couple's alleged actions. The nine-page document, written by an FBI agent, includes information from interviews with Stone and Montowski, as well as descriptions of rooms 258 and 259 in the Fort Eustis barracks where Stone and Lanum lived.
Montowski, who was wounded slightly in the shootout, told investigators that the trouble started after she left Lanum's barracks room to get cigarettes out of her car.
She told them Lanum, who had been cleaning his knives, refused to let her back into his room. So she knocked on Stone's door and asked if she could pass through his room to the common area he shared with Lanum.
The men began arguing, she said, and a full fight ensued.
Stone, who Fort Eustis officials said Thursday has been released from the hospital, told an FBI agent that Lanum shocked him three times with the stun gun before he fought back and ended up wrestling Lanum on the floor. Stone said Lanum urged Montowski to use the stun gun, and she shocked him four more times before he was able to free himself.
As he tried to open the door and flee, Lanum came from behind and cut his throat, Stone said. Stone made it to the first floor of the building, where he told base EMS personnel that Lanum had attacked him right after Lanum's girlfriend passed through his room.
Fort Eustis MPs found blood spatter on the walls, floors and furniture, and a knife and loaded .45 caliber handgun on the floor of the common room. A blood-covered stun gun was on the floor of Stone's room. Hanging on a bedpost in Lanum's room was a purse with Montowski's driver's license inside.
Fort Eustis officials said Lanum, who returned from Iraq in September 2007, had been stationed at the base since November. Both he and Stone were assigned to the post's health clinic. The 600 uniformed and civilian employees of the clinic have been offered counseling, said Karla Gonzalez, the base public affairs officer.
Gonzalez said she had no information about whether Lanum, a combat veteran, had sought counseling or was receiving any type of treatment at Fort Eustis.
The base is about to finish a month-long safety stand-down focused on preventing suicide.
It isn't clear whether Lanum intended to harm himself or expected to die. Montowski said that in the letter he dictated to his daughter, Andrea, before the assault, he said he could not explain his actions.
Montowski told agents that she also wrote a good bye note to her children, but it was not a suicide note and she did so only because Lanum did.
She told the agents that after the chase, Lanum tried to kill himself with a shotgun. At one point, he handed her the gun and asked her to shoot him, but she threw the gun down.
According to the park rangers and Virginia State Police troopers involved in the chase, Lanum had the shotgun pointed at the officers who approached the driver's side. His finger was on the trigger, and the affidavit said that he refused repeated demands to put down the gun.
One trooper fired through the window, and Lanum's shotgun discharged. He was struck several times and was declared dead at the scene. It is unclear who fired the fatal shots.
Funeral services are scheduled for today for Lanum, who was born in Portsmouth and later attended Kellam High School in Virginia Beach.
Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com
