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The man suspected of killing Sofia Silva will probably be indicted Jan. 21, the head prosecutor in Spotsylvania County said last night.
Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely would not confirm reports that Karl Michael Roush, a former neighbor of the 16-year-old Spotsylvania girl's, is the prime suspect in the case. But Neely did say that he will present indictments charging the suspect with murder and kidnapping when the grand jury meets this month.
"I can't envision a scenario where these charges won't be filed," Neely said. "We've really been ready for about a month."
Neely said authorities didn't rush to make an arrest because they knew the suspect wasn't going anywhere.
Roush has been in jail since Thanksgiving Day, when he turned himself in to King George County authorities. He was wanted on other charges and for questioning in the Silva case.
Meanwhile, a source also said that while investigators still have not been able to pinpoint Sofia's cause of death, they know that she was either stabbed or strangled.
Authorities announced yesterday that they are focusing on just one suspect in the killing but won't identify the person.
But several sources have said privately that the suspect is Roush, a 43-year-old self-employed painter who used to live down the street from Sofia.
Sofia disappeared from the front step of her family's Oak Grove Terrace home on Sept. 9. Her body turned up in a King George creek on Oct. 14. A source said Sofia was dead within a day or two of her disappearance.
Authorities have not said why they wanted to talk with Roush, but his former landlord gave some clues on that during a telephone interview last night.
At the time Sofia disappeared, Roush was renting a basement apartment from Charles Hudson IV, who owns a home in Oak Grove Terrace.
Before Sofia disappeared, Hudson said, he got several calls from neighbors who complained that Roush would drive his Dodge Caravan very slowly down the street, trying to talk with some of the neighborhood children.
A police source said these complaints were one reason investigators began looking at Roush as a suspect.
When detectives started combing the neighborhood asking questions, Hudson said he started thinking about some of Roush's behavior around the time of Sofia's disappearance.
Hudson said Roush started packing up his things one day in mid-September, about a month and a half before his lease was up. Roush had signed a six-month lease in May and also agreed to do some painting work for Hudson while he was there.
"When he left, he just got up and left, like a tenant who was being evicted," Hudson said. "It was almost like he was moving out in a hurry."
Hudson said Roush had paid his rent through the end of the month and gave no reason for his departure.
In the days before his move, Roush had started acting strangely, Hudson said.
"He started drinking constantly," Hudson said. "This guy totally, 100 percent turned around.
"When he was drinking, he got real mean. He would get upset if he didn't get his way. ... As long as he wasn't drinking, he never got out of hand."
Hudson said Roush hadn't been working much at the time and said he was having trouble finding painting jobs.
"He was just laying around a lot, watching TV," Hudson said.
Before the period during which Roush started drinking heavily, Hudson said, he was a good tenant who always paid the rent and had done Hudson a favor. When the alternator on Hudson's car broke, Roush bought a new one until Hudson could cash his paycheck and pay him back.
Hudson said he and Roush had sat down for a beer several times in Hudson's basement.
"You'd go out of your way to have a conversation with this guy just because you'd get a laugh out of it," Hudson said.
He described Roush as a smooth talker.
"You could be in the North Pole dying of the cold, and he could convince you to give him your coat," Hudson said.
Roush left several items behind when he moved out, Hudson said.
He said he let detectives come into his house and take some of those items, including cigarette butts that had been left in his wood stove.
"I didn't really believe the man was guilty," Hudson said.
Sources said forensic tests on evidence gathered from the King George site where Sofia's body was found point to Roush.
Spotsylvania detectives filed search warrants in November for Roush's van and two places he had lived in Spotsylvania. They also sought hair and blood samples from Roush.
At the time they filed the warrants, Roush was not around. He also failed to appear in court on a shoplifting charge in Spotsylvania.
He had been released from the Rappahannock Regional Jail on $3,500 bond on Nov. 6 after his arrest on the shoplifting charge. The warrants filed in connection with the slaying case were issued a week later.
Roush is accused of stealing a videocassette recorder from Kmart.
According to court papers, Roush has a previous criminal record dominated by theft and felony driving convictions in Maryland, North Carolina and the Tidewater area of Virginia.
