FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (WTVR) - Police say the 60-year-old man suspected of a weekend double murder has been apprehended in Fredericksburg Wednesday.
Natatia L. Bledsoe, with the Fredericksburg Police Department, said in a news release that John Wesley Jeffries was taken into custody at 3:50 p.m. in the 2000 block of Lafayette Boulevard.
The Spotsylavania County Sheriff’s Office is scheduled to hold a news briefing about the arrest at 6 p.m. Look for updates on WTVR.com and CBS 6 News.
Troopers had been searching the I-95 corridor, as well as Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and Fauquier counties after 80-year-old Nelson Slack and 74-year-old Ethel Slack were discovered bound, gagged and beaten to death inside their Fauquier County home Sunday.
Church members had asked a neighbor to check on the pair after they didn't show up for church that morning. Ethel, according to neighbors, was in charge of the church bulletin.
“They were church-going people and seemed to be right nice,” said neighbor Lester Sutphin.
Police recovered the victims’ vehicle late Sunday afternoon along the 1700 block of Lafayette Boulevard in Fredericksburg.
A 68-year-old Fredericksburg man with chronic pulmonary disease said he managed to fight off Jeffries inside his home Saturday evening.
Leonard Mara told CBS 6 News that he feared for his life, and didn't recognize who the man inside his home was at the time. [READ MORE: Elderly man fights off alleged double-murder suspect with oxygen tank]
“I stopped and asked, ‘who is that?’” Mara said, as the suspect approached him quickly and pushed him inside his backdoor. “
He said ‘you shut up or I will kill you right away,’” Mara recounted.
Jeffries is also wanted for strangling his ex-wife recently. Police also believe he attacked another elderly man in Fredericksburg. .
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