The Netflix series ‘Catching Killers’ focuses on the investigators behind infamous serial killer cases who reveal the harrowing, chilling details of their extraordinary efforts. The latest episode of the series (season 3, episode 4), follows retired Montgomery County detective Terry Ryan as he takes you through his experience with the D.C. sniper murders that began in Montgomery County.
At 5:20 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2, 2002, a shot was fired through the window of a Michaels craft store in Aspen Hill. The bullet narrowly missed Ann Chapman, a cashier at the store. Since no one was injured, the shot was assumed to be random, and no serious alarms were raised. Approximately one hour later, at 6:30 p.m., James Martin, a 55-year-old program analyst at NOAA, was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Shoppers Food Warehouse grocery store located in Glenmont.
On the morning of October 3, four people were shot dead within a span of approximately two hours in Aspen Hill and other nearby areas in Montgomery County:
- At 7:41 a.m., James L. Buchanan, a 39-year-old landscaper known as “Sonny”, was shot dead in Rockville near White Flint mall. Buchanan was shot while mowing the grass.
- At 8:12 a.m., a 54-year-old part-time taxi driver, Prem Kumar Walekar, was killed in Aspen Hill in Montgomery County, while pumping gasoline into his taxi at a Mobil station at Aspen Hill Road and Connecticut Avenue.
- At 8:37 a.m., Sarah Ramos, a 34-year-old babysitter and housekeeper, was killed on 3701 Rossmoor Boulevard, at the Leisure World Shopping Center in Norbeck/Silver Spring. She had gotten off a bus and was seated on a bench reading a book at the time of her murder.
- At 9:58 a.m., 25-year-old Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was killed while vacuuming her Plymouth Grand Voyager at the Shell station at the intersection of Connecticut and Knowles Avenues in Kensington.
The murders then started to take place in a wider portion of the D.C. Metropolitan Area before returning to Montgomery County on October 22nd when Ride-On bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, was shot at 5:56 a.m. on the 14100 block of Grand Pre Road in Aspen Hill.
Featured photo courtesy of Netflix, information from FBI, Netflix, Montgomery County Police, Washington Post, and NBC4.