Dad charged with murdering wife, three children (Newport News, Virginia)

Another one of those weird cases where Daddy spared his own biological son--but slaughtered the wife and stepkids. Not that he really did this child a favor, who has now been robbed forever of his mother and siblings in Daddy's bloody massacre. Makes me wonder what this child was forced to witness before Daddy thoughtfully hightailed it out of the state, and abandoned the child at a relative's house.

Notice that in this case, dad JOSE MOSES RAGIN had a criminal record (voluntary manslaughter) and was still on probation. Yet we still have the clueless neighbors insisting that "the family appeared friendly and happy." I respectfully suggest that y'all have NO IDEA what went on under that roof with this obviously violent criminal.

Notice that once again, Daddy finished of his Daddy Drama by starting a fire. This seems to be the dramatic finale for a lot of these @$$holes these days.

http://articles.dailypress.com/2011-08-20/news/dp-nws-homicide-reactions-20110820_1_three-children-officer-harold-eley-maintenance-worker

Neighbors mourn Newport News family killed in quadruple murder
Police issued warrants charging husband with murder of wife, three children
August 20, 2011

NEWPORT NEWS – On Saturday, as a woman prayed and dropped two pink-and-purple teddy bears outside the Newport News apartment where most of a family was slain Friday, a team of detectives headed to Manning, S.C., to interview the man accused of killing his wife and three children.

Newport News police have issued warrants charging John Moses Ragin, 36, of the 14000 block of Old Courthouse Way, with four counts of murder related to Friday's quadruple homicide of his wife, 32-year-old Crystal Ragin and three children: Sierra Ragin, 15; Rasheed Ragin, 10; and Lakwan Ragin,6, said police spokesman Officer Harold Eley. The warrants will be served once Ragin is extradited back to Virginia, which could be as early as next week, Eley said.

Authorities were called to the family's home at Forrest Pine Apartments, in the Denbeigh area, at 2:26 p.m. Friday after someone reported smelling smoke. A maintenance worker went into the apartment and found one body; firefighters and police officers responding to the call discovered the bodies of the other three victims, police said.

Although the Medical Examiner will determine an exact cause of death for the victims, each appeared to have been stabbed and exposed to fire, according to Eley. Police initially said the body of 15-year-old Sierra was burned beyond recognition.

Police received a phone call from John Ragin around 2:30 a.m. Saturday saying he was in Manning, Eley said. On Friday night, Ragin had dropped off his 5-year-old son unharmed at a relative's home in South Carolina. Although all the children have Ragin's last name, the surviving 5-year-old is John and Crystal's Ragin's only biological child, Eley said.

According to court records, Ragin was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1991 in Clarendon County, S.C. Although no details of the incident were available, Ragin is still on probation from that conviction, Eley said.

Neighbors say the Ragins had only moved into Forrest Hills three or four months ago and that for the most part, the family appeared friendly and happy. Late Saturday, neighbors and Crystal Ragin's co-workers from Fort Eustis began creating a memorial to the young mother and her three children.

While one wiped a tear and signed a card, several colleagues described Army Sgt. Crystal Ragin as a good mentor, a woman with a quick smile who treated her fellow soldiers with respect and like family. Sgt. 1st Class Phillip Smith said he had been deployed to Iraq twice with Ragin.

"We hadn't even been home (from the last deployment) for a year," Smith said. "The Army is not like civilian life. We are a lot closer and when one of us goes down, we all feel it."

"She was always smiling and hugging everyone," said Spec. Lizbeth Graniela, who said Raglin was her sergeant. "She was like a mom to all of us."

Smith and Staff Sgt. Willie Hillman Jr. said Ragin had never mentioned any problems with her husband, aside from routine arguments that most couples experience. "Nothing extremely unusual," Smith said.

But neighbor Farrah Dye, whose kids often played with the youngest Ragin children, said she heard people fighting around midnight Thursday, although she wasn't sure it was coming from that family's home. Her son, 8-year-old Kamari, said he saw John Ragin outside earlier that night kicking the family's car several times.