Sheriff's Office investigating suspected murder-suicide in Patrick County

STUART, Va. – The Patrick County Sheriff's Office is investigating a possible murder-suicide it believes happened during the weekend.

Deputies responded to a home on Horace Lane in Stuart on Monday at 10:46 a.m. to investigate a shooting after a family member went to the home earlier in the day, saw two bodies inside and notified the Sheriff's Office, according to Sheriff Dan Smith.  

Deputies arrived and found Michael David Lawson, 32, who had died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, and 30-year-old Misty Dawn Blevins, who had died of a single gunshot wound.  

Lawson and Blevins lived there together, according to Smith.

Smith said evidence suggests that, sometime during the previous two days, Lawson shot and killed Blevins and then committed suicide.

The investigation is continuing and both bodies will undergo an autopsy at the state medical examiner’s office in Roanoke.  

Criminal investigators with the Virginia State Police are assisting the Sheriff’s Office with the investigation.  

Anyone with information is urged to contact Sheriff Dan Smith confidentially at 276-692-7012 or Investigator Brian Hubbard at 276-692-6512.