A New Year’s celebration in Roanoke, Virginia, ended in a multiple homicide in the early hours of January 1, 1995. Five people at a small carriage house apartment were shot to death during an altercation; among them was 36-year-old Cynthia Ann Cindy LaPrade, who died of a gunshot wound to the head. Other victims named in reports were Dale Jay Arnold, 36; Carl Leonard Lee Stroop, 42; Daniel Barry Mason, 58; and Susan Lynne Hutchinson, 44.

Police arrested a 27-year-old neighbor, Robert Michael May, later that day and recovered a stolen .40-caliber revolver on the roof of a nearby building where he lived. Reports say May gave conflicting accounts, at times claiming self-defense and at other times expressing remorse for the women’s deaths; he reportedly confessed and was indicted on capital murder and multiple first-degree murder counts. May eventually entered a no contest plea and was convicted and sentenced in August 1995.

Does anyone have memories of the neighborhood or the carriage house apartment scene that could add context to what happened that night?