Fairfax County police officer John A. Parker walks along the side of the Gardners' home looking for evidence. (By James A. Parcell — The Washington Post)

By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 13, 1999; Page B1

Jimmy and Jannis Gardner loved working in the yard, growing flowers along a small rock wall behind their Lorton home and harvesting vegetables in a sizable garden. To hold their tools, Jimmy Gardner, 64, built a corrugated tin shed in the back yard, right on top of an underground fallout shelter dug by a previous owner.

After Jannis Gardner, 63, didn't show up for church Sunday, and family members hadn't seen the couple for days, neighbors broke into the shed Tuesday. Inside the shelter, they found the Gardners' decomposing bodies, along with that of Jimmy Gardner's 90-year-old father, Elmer Gardner, all covered in lime powder. Autopsies yesterday revealed that all three had been stabbed multiple times in the upper body, Fairfax County police said.

Jannis Gardner was remembered as a cheerful, caring neighbor. (Family photo)

Police who entered the Gardner house with a search warrant yesterday afternoon found indications that the slayings had occurred there, according to Officer Julie Hersey, a police spokeswoman.

Authorities were searching for the Gardners' son, Keith J. Gardner, 39, who neighbors said had recently moved back into his parents' home. "We're anxious to talk to him," police spokesman Warren Carmichael said, "because he's a person of interest in the investigation."

Keith Gardner, who has a criminal record in Virginia, was not charged with any crimes yesterday.

Dan Hopkins, pastor at nearby First Baptist Church of Lorton, said he went to the Gardners' home in the 9200 block of Gilmore Drive on Monday because Jannis Gardner always called if she had to miss church, even if she was going out of town. She also had missed her regular Sunday school class for toddlers.

Police want to talk to Keith Gardner, son of the slain couple. (Family photo)

As he approached the house, Hopkins said, Keith Gardner pulled into the driveway. "He told me they were in Arkansas," Hopkins said. The Gardners originally were from Arkansas, where Jimmy Gardner still owned houses that he rented out, friends said.

Keith Gardner "didn't seem nervous or agitated," Hopkins recalled, "just very casual." So Hopkins returned to the church, only to learn the next day that the Gardners were not in Arkansas.

About the time of Hopkins's visit, the Gardners' other son, Kim, who was traveling in Florida, began calling friends in Arkansas, as well as the neighbors on Gilmore Drive, looking for his parents. Police were summoned about 1 p.m. Tuesday but found the house secure and no signs of foul play. So two family friends went into the house later that day, then checked the toolshed, where neighbors said they noticed what appeared to be caulking around the bomb shelter doors.

The neighbors said the two men pried through the caulking, lowered a cigarette lighter into the darkness and saw the three bodies shortly after about 6 p.m.

The neighborhood was staggered by the slayings, particularly because Jannis Gardner was widely revered as a generous, upbeat and deeply religious woman. Inside the church, Hopkins pointed to a plaque that had not yet been given to her, honoring her 10 years of devotion to a youth program.

"Probably about every child in this church has been taught by her," Hopkins said. "She loved children. She loved life; she was always happy. She was one of the people everybody knew, hugs all around."

Jannis Gardner, a seamstress who worked out of her home, sewed the huge maroon curtains that frame the cross in the church's sanctuary.

She was planning to do some curtains for Richard and Johna Rottier across the street. Richard Rottier said Jannis Gardner was the neighborhood watchdog, keeping track of people who walked through the quiet subdivision just off Route 1 near the Gunston Plaza Shopping Center.

"I am really angry to have somebody just ripped out of the community like that," Rottier said. "She was always a happy person, never down. Always dropping off vegetables that she grew herself."

Several years ago, Rottier badly injured his hand while fixing his washing machine. Although it was Mother's Day, he said, Jannis Gardner drove him to the hospital and waited six hours for him to be treated.

Bob and Nancy Tolley lived next door to the Gardners for more than 20 years. Bob Tolley said he and Jimmy Gardner watched football and hunted together. "He was a good guy, do anything he could for you," Tolley said. He said Jimmy Gardner was retired from the Army; the Army was unable to confirm that yesterday.

Jimmy Gardner "always had a beer in his hand," Rottier said, and the Tolleys would kid him about his fondness for the low-budget Milwaukee's Best brand.

But some of the neighbors said he had a temper that would erupt when he had been drinking. "They'd get into fights in the middle of the night," particularly when their son Keith was home, said Andy Mullins. Police were called to the home occasionally, neighbors said, but yesterday police officials were unable to provide information on how many times they had visited the Gardners.

Keith Gardner has a criminal record in Virginia dating to 1986, with burglary convictions in Fairfax, Spotsylvania and Prince William counties, state corrections officials said. In 1989, he was convicted in Fairfax County on drug distribution and weapons charges and sentenced to eight years in prison and 20 years' probation. It was unclear yesterday how much of that term he served.

Florida corrections officials said they allowed Gardner to serve his probation there beginning in March 1998. Six months later, Gardner was convicted of two misdemeanor charges after he was caught loitering outside a convenience store and fled from police, said Columbia County, Fla., prosecutor Craig Jacobsen.

Neighbors who live near the home in Cocoa, Fla., where Gardner lived, said he was polite but kept to himself. There was no answer yesterday at the home.

Staff writers Maria Glod, Brian Mooar and Josh White contributed to this report.