Ashburn Strangling Case Will Go to a Grand Jury

Boyfriend Confessed, Investigator Testifies

An Ashburn man confessed that he strangled his girlfriend in late March after a heated argument, then kept her body hidden under a bed in his apartment before authorities discovered it more than two weeks later, according to testimony yesterday.

David Cavalieri, 40, is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Stacie Harper, 37, who lived with him, authorities said. Loudoun County Judge Avelina S. Jacob ruled that there was sufficient evidence to send the case against Cavalieri to a grand jury.

Cavalieri called 911 the morning of April 15 to report that he had injured himself, authorities said. He later told investigators that he had stabbed himself in the abdomen and neck, one of several suicide attempts he made after killing Harper, according to testimony during the hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.

After killing Harper, Cavalieri e-mailed her relatives using her account and name to make it appear that she was alive, explaining why she had to miss appointments, could not pick up her young son and had been out of touch, said Harper's aunt, Carol Sheppard of Reston.

"He was e-mailing people so they wouldn't miss her," Sheppard said after the hearing. "We're devastated. . . . She was a beautiful woman that definitely did not deserve to have this happen to her."

Investigators recounted a gruesome series of events, in which they said Cavalieri methodically took steps to conceal Harper's body.

During an interrogation in April, Cavalieri said he choked Harper because she was "self-righteous," and he said he and Harper had been drinking and arguing over finances and alleged infidelity, testified Shannon Coderre, an investigator with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

Cavalieri told investigators he then smoked a cigarette and choked Harper again, this time with a piece of twine, "so tight his fingers were going numb," Coderre said. Cavalieri said he could not remember everything that had happened, Coderre said.

Cavalieri then wrapped Harper's body in a shower curtain and comforter and later in garbage bags secured with masking tape, authorities testified.

Public defender Lorie E. O'Donnell argued that the first-degree murder charge was too severe, noting that Cavalieri had been drinking and was in a heated argument.

"The question is: Was there premeditation? Was there malice on the 29th?" O'Donnell said. "There was not."

Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney James P. Fisher disagreed, saying that the account Cavalieri gave to investigators showed premeditation and that Cavalieri attacked Harper "upon no reasonable basis."

"The testimony revealed a very violent and disturbing episode," Fisher said in an e-mail after the hearing.

Sheppard said that Harper had been dating Cavalieri for more than a year, that she was not working at the time of her death and that she had three sons.

Prosecutors plan to bring Cavalieri's case before a grand jury next week. The maximum sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison.