Mom of possible Denton County sniper victim wants answers before execution

By MATTHEW BARAKAT

The Associated Press

McLEAN, Va. — It galled her to do it, but Sarah Dillon was desperate for answers, so she wrote letters to convicted snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo: If you murdered my son, please confess, she wrote.

She got no reply.

"I’ve been waiting for answers for seven years," said Dillon, who took to wearing a button that says, "Billy Gene Dillon is a very important person," as a reminder that his killing in rural Denton County remains unsolved.

Sarah Dillon is not the only person with unanswered questions about the killing spree initiated by Muhammad and Malvo seven years ago, which culminated with 13 shootings and 10 deaths over three weeks that terrorized the Washington region and beyond.

As Virginia prepares to execute Muhammad today, authorities cannot answer perhaps the most basic question about the killings: How many people did he and Malvo shoot and kill?

The killing spree in the Washington area in October 2002 is well-documented. Beginning Oct. 2, Muhammad and Malvo shot 13 people at random with a high-powered rifle, firing from the trunk of a modified, beat-up Chevy Caprice. Ten were killed before authorities finally tracked down the pair at a Maryland rest stop.

But the sniper shootings started before Muhammad and Malvo reached the Beltway, with a number of people killed or wounded as the two drove across the country, including North Texas.

Investigators have clearly linked them to some of these prelude shootings, though they have never stood trial for them. Others fall into a gray area — police have suspicions, perhaps, but no proof.

The question became even murkier in 2006, when Malvo reportedly confessed to four additional shootings, including two killings, that had not been linked to him. Denton County officials said at the time that Muhammad’s claim amounted to a "hypothetical allegation" and that they did not consider Dillon’s case closed.

But if Malvo’s reported confessions are accepted as true, it would mean that he and Muhammad are responsible for 27 shootings resulting in 17 deaths in 10 states (Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, Washington, Georgia, Texas, California, Florida, Arizona and Louisiana) plus the District of Columbia.

Malvo would talk to police only in jurisdictions that promised not to prosecute him, a deal some agencies weren’t willing to make.

In Texas, Sarah Dillon still doesn’t know who shot and killed her son, Billy Gene Dillon, 37, in May 2002 outside a rural Denton County home about 40 miles north of Dallas. Local authorities submitted bullet fragments in 2002 from their investigation of Dillon’s death to the task force that investigated the sniper shootings, but tests were inconclusive.

At the time, they had little reason to suspect the snipers except that Dillon had apparently been shot at a distance by a high-powered rifle, just like the victims of the D.C. sniper spree. Police agencies from across the country took similar actions, to see whether unsolved killings could be connected to Muhammad and Malvo.

Denton County sheriff’s spokesman Tom Reedy expressed some frustration about the inability to get answers from the Washington-area authorities regarding Billy Gene Dillon’s death.

"If they give you an answer, let us know," he said.

The FBI, part of the sniper task force that helped catch Muhammad and Malvo, declined to comment on how many people the snipers shot and killed, except to say the question is "complicated."

"To further complicate it, the statements of Muhammad and Malvo need to be relied on as to who performed any given shooting. Needless to say, their statements cannot be vetted for each and every event," FBI spokesman Richard Wolf said in an e-mail.

Sarah Dillon, meanwhile, is well aware that Muhammad’s death eliminates one of the people who may be able to answer her questions about her son’s slaying.

"All I’m asking for is answers before they leave this world," she said.

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