2 Entire Families Slaughtered Less Than A Mile Apart

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String Of Brutal Slayings Shocks City

Uncle and nephew suspects had long found trouble together

Richmond, Virginia - The neighborhood where Bryan and Kathryn Harvey were raising their two young daughters is an oasis of suburban serenity in the middle of a city that ranks high on lists of dangerous places.

Many of the gracious, century-old homes in Woodland Heights have backyard sandboxes and swing sets. Many residents don't lock their doors. Only last summer, a rash of toolshed break-ins was considered a crime wave.

Then, on New Year's Day, neighbors noticed smoke curling from the Harveys' two-story, red-brick house with a lime green door and called 911.

What was discovered inside was so gruesome that homicide detectives cried. All four Harveys -- Bryan, 49; Kathryn, 39; Stella, 9; and Ruby, 4 -- had been bound with tape and beaten. Their throats were slit.

It was only the beginning.

Five days later, police acting on a tip went to a working-class neighborhood a mile from the Harveys' home and found three more bodies. Like the Harveys, Ashley Baskerville, 21, her mother, Mary, 47, and stepfather, Percyell Tucker, 55, had been tied up before being slain in their home.

Police believe all seven victims were killed by two ex-convicts from Arlington County who are uncle and nephew. Ricky J. Gray and Ray J. Dandridge, both 28, were charged in the slayings. Since Gray and Dandridge were arrested Jan. 7 in Philadelphia, police have linked them to other crimes in a trail of death and violence stretching from Virginia to Pennsylvania, like a page torn from "In Cold Blood."

The men have told police they slashed the throat of an Arlington man on New Year's Eve, and police suspect they robbed a Chesterfield County couple in their home three days later. In addition, Gray is a suspect in the death of his wife of barely six months, Treva Terrell Gray, whose body was found in November in a weedy lot south of Pittsburgh.

In October 1995, Gray and Dandridge, along with two others, were caught robbing people with a loaded handgun. They committed minor-league holdups -- backpacks and watches from two Georgetown University students; a pager, sunglasses and $1 from a man.

"I was more of a follower than a leader," Dandridge said in a handwritten letter to the Alexandria judge, asking for mercy. "I have low self esteem and am in dire need of a sense of direction."

Dandridge was convicted of robbery and handgun charges and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Gray was convicted of robbery and sentenced to four years; he got out in three. At St. Brides Correctional Center in Chesapeake, Va., Gray earned a general equivalency diploma. Soon after his release, he was arrested on drug charges.

Gray Gets Married, Wife Found Dead

During one of his interludes from prison, Gray met Treva Terrell.

By the time Gray was released from prison in January 2005, Terrell had moved with her family to Washington, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh. Her mother, Marna Squires, said she felt it was a "safer" place.

One day last summer, Squires's daughter announced that she and Gray had just been married. The couple moved into a house that Squires owns. Gray's mother moved to town, and Squires rented her a house, too. And when Dandridge was released from prison Oct. 26, after serving 10 years, he moved there.

Ten days later, Treva Terrell Gray's body was found. Police in Washington, Pa., say they consider Dandridge and Gray "persons of interest" in the investigation of her death.

It is not known exactly when or why Dandridge and Gray came to Richmond. But on New Year's Eve, the spasm of violence linked to the two men began.

In an apparently random robbery, Dandridge and Gray slit the throat of a 25-year-old Arlington man, who survived the vicious attack, police said.

Then the Harveys were discovered dead in their home, which had been set on fire.

Initially, the viciousness of the crime led police to consider it an act of passion or vengeance committed by someone who knew the family. Later, they told neighbors there is no known connection between the Harveys and the suspects. Last week, a mobile police command center remained parked outside the Harveys' home, a reassuring presence in the rattled neighborhood.

Two days after the Harvey slayings, Roy Mason was watching television from his living room recliner at home in Chesterfield, just south of the Richmond city line. His wife, Dale, 57, who has multiple sclerosis, uses a wheelchair and is legally blind from diabetes, was in the bedroom.

Two men came to the door for directions, then burst in and pushed Roy Mason, who is in his seventies, down on the couch, according to accounts he gave to his wife's sister, Bonnie Goolsby and nephew, Roger Toney. The men took a TV, DVD player, computer and $800 from the Social Security check Dale Mason had cashed that morning, Toney said.

After half an hour, the men threatened to lash the couple together. But Roy Mason talked them out of it.

"He begged and pleaded with them that his wife was sick and if anything happened to her, he wouldn't be able to get to her," Toney said. To the couple's surprise, the men agreed to leave them untied. Indeed, the intruders were polite throughout, saying to Roy Mason, "Yes, sir," and "No, sir."

Connecting Crimes

The Masons are afraid to return to their modest home of 38 years, with the new handicapped ramp leading to the front door, Toney said. And for a week, Roy Mason did not realize the incident had anything to do with the Harvey killings. But when he saw Gray and Dandridge on television after their arrest, he immediately recognized them as the intruders, Toney said.

He also recognized one of the victims. Midway through the Masons' ordeal, a woman had joined them and stolen a video game. When photographs of the next three slaying victims were released, Toney said, Roy Mason identified Ashley Baskerville as the female accomplice.

Suddenly, the Mason break-in did not look random. Gray and Dandridge had been staying in the townhouse of a woman who lives behind the Masons. The woman's daughter was friendly with Baskerville, whom she met when they were in a detention center together.

Police have said that the Baskerville house was ransacked and that Percyell Tucker's 1993 Chevrolet Blazer was stolen. But it is unknown whether they were victims of a robbery gone awry or the killers feared being turned in.

Acting on a tip relayed through Virginia authorities, Philadelphia police arrested Gray and Dandridge early Jan. 7, hours after the bodies of Baskerville and her parents had been found. The men had arrived at the home of Dandridge's father the afternoon before. They were arrested there without incident.

Even with the suspects in custody, much of Richmond remains exhausted and on edge. Officials attending vigils have said they hope the slayings are a tipping point that encourages more people to contact police with information.

Dandridge and his uncle are being held without bail. The prosecutor is expected to seek the death penalty.