Twenty-two years ago, two cold-blooded snipers were in the midst of unleashing a three-week, deadly reign of terror on unsuspecting residents in the Washington, D.C., area.
Twelve days into the massive federal investigation, FBI intelligence analyst and mom of two Linda Franklin, 47, became the D.C. snipers' 11th victim, according to authorities.
Linda, a three-year veteran with the bureau, was shot and killed near Falls Church, Virginia, while shopping at the Home Depot with her husband Oct. 14, 2002.
As the couple were loading their trunk, William Franklin said he heard a loud noise and felt something hit his face.
"I didn't know it at the time," Franklin testified during the 2003 trial for mastermind John Allen Muhammad, the Associated Press reported, "afterward, I found out it was her blood."
Between Oct. 2 and Oct. 24, 2002, Muhammad, then 41, and his then-17-year-old accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, sniped 13 strangers across several locations in Maryland and Virginia, according to investigators. Ten people, including Linda, died.
"I know I speak for all of the FBI when I say that our thoughts and prayers go out to Linda's husband William, her two adult children, and her family and friends," former FBI Director Robert Mueller said in a statement at the time. "The employees who worked with Linda – and all of us – are deeply shocked and angry over this tragedy."
James Martin, 55; James Buchanan, 39; Premkumar Walekar, 54; Sarah Ramos, 34; Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25; Pascal Charlot, 72; Dean Harold Meyers, 53; Kenneth Bridges, 53; and Conrad Johnson, 35; were also killed.
The trepidation felt amongst the D.C. area came to a halt the night of the 24th, when law enforcement closed in on the murderers sleeping in their 1990 Chevy Caprice at a rest stop in Frederick County, Maryland.
Muhammad and Malvo were ambushed and arrested without incident.
The FBI described the killers' vehicle as a "rolling sniper's nest," with a hole cut in the trunk so they could fire from within. The rifle and scope used in the slayings were also recovered from the car, among other items of evidence, according to the FBI.
Both men were convicted of multiple counts of murder, and Muhammad, who was executed by lethal injection in 2009, declined to make a final statement before he was put to death.
Malvo continues to serve four life sentences at the Red Onion State Prison for his part in the murders in Virginia. In September, he was transferred to the Keen Mountain Correctional Center, a lower level facility, also in Virginia.
In December, Malvo will be resentenced on six life sentences in the killings of six victims in Montgomery County, Maryland, after the Court of Appeals ruled his life sentences without the possibility of parole no longer complied with the law, due to a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that restricted the lifetime punishment for juvenile offenders, according to WTOP News. In 2020, the Virginia government passed a law that would allow underage convicts to be eligible for parole after serving 20 years of their life sentence.
