A June 1995 triple murder in a South Arlington house claimed the life of David Kaplan, a 34-year-old editor at Congressional Quarterly. Kaplan was a tenant in the home shared by Florence Marie Marks, 54, and William Miller, 52. The attacker, 21-year-old Christopher J. Beck, had lived with Marks after moving from Tennessee in 1994 but was evicted after being accused of theft; Miller had hired Beck for maintenance work and later fired him after a disagreement.

Beck returned from his mother’s home in Philadelphia about a week before the killings and reportedly staked out the house. On the day of the attack he first killed Marks and then Miller when he returned home. Kaplan walked in on the scene and was shot multiple times and stabbed as an unintended witness. Beck was arrested for the murders, later pleaded guilty to capital murder and related charges, and received a death sentence.