VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Neighbors described the family involved in the Amber Alert for the three children out of Virginia Beach as a good family, saying they had never seen or heard them get into fights. So, when they heard about what happened, they told 10 On Your Side they were surprised.
“Did surprise the heck out of me,” Tony Cuffee said. “But like I say, it’s quiet out here. Nothing ever happens out here. Nothing like that.”
We spoke to David and Lisa, who live near the home of Dana Plummer. A little more than a year ago, the two parents divorced. The mother moved about a block away, staying close by so the two can co-parent their children.
David said that at around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Plummer went to their home and asked to borrow his phone.
“I thought it was an emergency,” David recalled. “He said I got my kids in the car. I said come on inside, he obviously needed to chill out and relax and something. He said, no, I got my kids in the car.”
“I let him have his privacy, I let him have his business, but I didn’t know he was going to do something like that,” David added.
A couple hours later, police swarmed into the neighborhood. They found the mother and another child had been stabbed. Plummer and the three other young children had taken off.
No one was home when WAVY-TV 10 knocked this morning. A search warrant was wedged into the window pane at the home of the victim. From what we can read on the of the packet without tampering with the documents, it stated police issued the warrant to search for weapons, evidence and security camera footage, as the home has a doorbell cam and a front-facing security camera.
David and Lisa said Plummer was clearly going through some mental hardships. They had no idea it would escalate like this.
“That man was going through a lot and he’s been going through it for a while,” David said. “If it’s a problem with mental illness, guys got to do something about it. When somebody is reaching out for help, you never know. It could be me, it could be you.”