NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — “It’s unbelievable,” Nelson Carter said Wednesday, about the death of his neighbor across the street, Hendrika Elizabeth Richards. Like others in this neighborhood, Carter knew her as Vicky.

Carter has lived in the neighborhood for 44 years, but he says he hadn’t seen Richards in several months.

Police found her body early last week in the home she shared with her husband in Heacox Lane, a bullet wound in her chest, a Smith and Wesson gun nearby. They’re treating her death as a homicide but no one has been charged.

It wasn’t the first time Vicky Richards had been shot.

A detective investigating the current incident stated that Richards was shot by her husband in February 2024. It was ruled an accident. He was charged with reckless handling of a gun but the charge was set aside.

“I was told he was cleaning his gun and the gun went off accidentally,” Carter said.

Warning signs on the couple’s home say it’s dangerous and had to be evacuated.

Carter remembers how Richards’ husband would bring her food from her favorite restaurant, Golden Corral. “It sounds like something that’s not real,” Carter said. “But I guess it is.”

Richards’ husband remains hospitalized with injuries to his arms and hands, and he reportedly has cancer.

Newport News Police say they are coordinating with Commonwealth attorney’s office on any potential charges.

The 79-year-old Newport News woman found dead in her home on the 300 block of Heacox Lane last week had been shot at least once, according to new court documents in the case that spell out some of what police have learned so far.

Hendrika Elizabeth Richards was found on the morning of April 21, wrapped in a tarp, bound with duct tape and rope after police responded to a welfare check, court documents state. Investigators executed a search warrant on the home she and her husband shared, and found a firearm with four spent casings and a single unfired cartridge in the bedroom.

“On the carpet next to the body are two possible blood stains, a roll of duct tape, rope and an additional grey tarp in the room,” a search warrant in the case reads.

Neighbors told investigators they hadn’t seen the couple for two or three weeks.

Police located Richards’ husband at a local hospital.

“While [a witness] was visiting [the husband] in the hospital, he told [the witness] that on or about April 11 or 12, 2025, he fell in his residence and had to pull himself upstairs to lay down,” another search warrant affidavit reads. “The fall caused him to break his collarbone and knocked out four of his teeth.”

The man initially told police his wife had died while staying in a rehab facility, and that her niece called to let him know. He said Richards had suffered a massive heart attack April 1 after he informed her that his cancer had spread.

“[The husband] had several inconsistencies on his wife’s whereabouts and how she might have passed away,” a sworn police statement reads. “When confronted with information and evidence from the scene, [he] changed his story and dates of when the events occurred.”

An autopsy revealed that Richards was shot in the chest at least once. A bullet was also found in her clothing.

Richards’ husband was investigated a year earlier for shooting his wife in the abdomen. That incident, in February 2024, was determined by police to have been accidental.

WAVY is declining to name the husband because he hasn’t been charged in relation to the crime, at this time.