MATHEWS CO., Va. (WAVY) — Two people were arrested and charged in connection with a double homicide and arson in Mathews County Friday night, according to the Mathews County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials say they received a call around 10 p.m. for reports of a fire in the 1700 block of John Clayton Memorial Highway.
When firefighters arrived, they located a man, Chad Wayne Ashford, 54, and a woman, Audrey Elaine Hudgins Mowrar, 56, dead inside the home, according to the sheriff’s office.
MCSO contacted Virginia State Police to assist investigating the scene, in which investigators noticed both individuals suffered gunshot wounds prior to the start of the fire.
Newport News Police located two suspects after help from the public, digital evidence and the Flock license plate readers led the sheriff’s office to pursue a suspect vehicle in Newport News.
The suspects, Lacey Ann Horsley, 18, and Carol Paul Cormier Jr., 33, fled after NNPD initiated a traffic stop, deputies say. They were then later detained Saturday by police.
The investigation revealed the victims were shot several times and killed Thursday, July 10, and the suspects returned the following day to burn the evidence.
Cormier has since been charged with:
- Two counts of second-degree murder
- Two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a murder
- Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
- Burning or destroying the residential home
Horsley has been charged with:
- Two counts of acting as an accessory after the fact in a murder
- Conspiracy to burn/destroy a residential home.
Cormier’s mother, Tina Darby Kelley, said she was “emotionally drained.”
“I go to sleep, I wake up, 2, 3, 4 o’clock in the morning,” Darby Kelley said, “sit on the … chair and just cry, cry, cry and cry, cry for Audrey, cry for Chad, and cry for the bad decision my son made.”
Darby Kelley said she knew both victims personally and had strong relationships with them.
“Audrey was an amazing woman. Audrey, would go a mile, she’d go that extra two miles,” she told 10 On Your Side. “And Chad, he was the same way. He had a heart of gold, too.”
“I didn’t raise my son to be this type of person. And I just want Audrey’s girls to know, her son to know, I loved your mother. I did. We’ve been friends since 2013.”
She was heartbroken when she realized it was her own son that took their lives. She expressed that she did not raise him this way and that he may have been struggling with his mental health.
She said her 33-year-old son and 18-year-old Lacey Horsley were dating at the time of the murders. Horsley reportedly had just graduated high school last month. Darby Kelley is hopeful the court will see Horsley may have been intimidated by her son to be involved with the murders.
“I think she was more afraid to tell anyone because she probably thought that she was going to die, too, you know?” she explained to 10 On Your Side.
As for what started the violence, Darby Kelley said she spoke with Cormier about why he did it. She said he told her there was an argument with Ashford, he shot Ashford, and then shot Audrey because he “didn’t want any witnesses.”
She asked him what the argument was about and he wouldn’t say. Darby Kelley, though, has theories about her son’s relationship with Chad Ashford. She recalled a conversation where she had asked if they were dating.
“When I asked Carol if that was true, he said no. When I asked Chad if that was true, he said yes,” she said.
She believes the tragedy may have been motivated by their potentially intimate relationship.
“I said, ‘If you are bisexual, that’s not going to make me not love you … because you’re my son,'” she recalled. “That’s probably what may have been the cause, I don’t know.”
Both suspects, Cormier and Horsley, are being held without bond and were taken to the Middle Peninsula Regional Security Center on Sunday. They’re expected to be in court on Tuesday.
Continue to check WAVY.com for updates.
