According to the police, a man in Virginia hired someone to kill his grandmother, who was 97 years old. The alleged hitman was indicted this week, and he later committed suicide while the police were investigating her death.
According to the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Office, James Hopper, 53, of Fincastle, and Steven Fowler, 30, of Salem, reportedly conspired to kill his grandmother Catherine Graff in April. Fowler is accused of being the hitman who committed the crime.
After being taken into custody earlier this year, Fowler was faced with an indictment on Tuesday for aggravated murder for hire. He is presently being held without bond and is being held without the possibility of bond.
The obituary for Hopper states that he “passed away” on May 2 and that the authorities believe he intended to take his own life.
The sheriff’s office said in a news release on December 3 that “the suspected orchestrator, James W. Hopper, took his own life during the course of the investigation.”
On April 25, graffiti was discovered at a Botetourt County home. Authorities opened an investigation after the medical examiner declared her death to be a homicide.
Detectives sought to “discover evidence pointing to a family member as the mastermind behind a murder-for-hire scheme targeting [Graff]” as the case progressed.
Fowler was “hired to carry out the murder” by Hopper, according to police on Tuesday, and he reportedly did so on April 25. The cause of Graff’s death remains unknown.
According to his obituary, Hopper’s wife, Ashley Nicely Hopper, and grandparents, Catherine and William Graff, all away before him.
His daughter, Allyson Hopper, parents, James and Susan Hopper, sister, Carol Hensler, and nephews, Jake and Brendan Hensler, are among his surviving family members, according to the obituary.
Law&Crime’s attempts to contact the family have not been fruitful.
Local media state that Fowler’s charge is the second murder-for-hire scheme discovered in the region in the last week, with the first being in neighboring Henry County.
According to WSLS, a 44-year-old woman was captured on tape and camera purportedly discussing plans to hire a hitman to carry out a robbery and murder. She is now charged with criminal solicitation of murder and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Hopper’s suicide probably made it more difficult for investigators to file an indictment because murder-for-hire orchestrators like these sometimes need to be apprehended while they are organizing a hit, according to Virginia criminologist Dr. Tod Burke.
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“There are a lot of motives for murder for hire, and oftentimes it takes a really good investigation to uncover what actually has happened,” Burke stated. “It’s even more complicated if the person who did the hiring dies.”
