In the affluent Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Georgetown, the life of 45-year-old author Nancy Richards-Akers came to a violent and tragic end on the late evening of Saturday, June 5, 1999. A successful writer of historical romance novels, she was shot twice in the back of the head while sitting in her red Jeep on Reservoir Road NW. The gunman was her estranged husband, Jeremy R. Akers, a 57-year-old lawyer and decorated Vietnam veteran.
The couple's two young children, aged 10 and 11, tragically witnessed the brutal events unfold.
The marriage between Nancy and Jeremy had been deteriorating for some time, leading to their separation. Nancy had moved into a nearby apartment, while Jeremy remained in the family home with the children. Friends of Nancy revealed that she had been a victim of domestic abuse, suffering broken bones and threats on her life. In the period leading up to the murder, the couple was engaged in a contentious divorce and a battle for custody of their children.
After shooting his estranged wife, Jeremy Akers fled the scene in his Mercury Mountaineer. A little over an hour and a half later, police tracked him to a pay phone near the Lincoln Memorial after he contacted a friend. U.S. Park Police officers then found him on the grass near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. As the officers approached, Akers took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound from a shotgun. The case was ultimately determined to be a murder-suicide, leaving their three children parentless. No arrests were made as the sole suspect in Nancy Richards-Akers' murder had taken his own life.
