Suzanne B. Cabaniss, a 33-year-old White woman, was killed by gunfire on December 6, 2018, in Floyd, Virginia, a death that quickly settled into the kind of quiet confusion that can hang over a small community when the first version of a story doesn’t quite fit. The incident was treated from the outset as a domestic-violence shooting, and she died at the scene.
Investigators tied the shooting to her current or former significant other, Kyle Joseph Marchon, and public incident summaries described a man shooting his girlfriend inside the home. A. 22-caliber revolver was noted in connection with the killing, and authorities also found additional firearms in the house—three shotguns and at least two rifles—details that underscored how quickly a private dispute could turn lethal. Marchon was identified as the suspect and was reported as arrested.
In the days that followed, the account of how Suzanne died did not remain stable. Later public summaries referenced reporting that the death had initially been framed as a possible suicide, only for the case to be reclassified when the local prosecutor said it was murder, not suicide—an about-face that recast what happened in Floyd as something pursued as homicide, not tragedy by one’s own hand.
The case moved into court with Marchon facing a murder trial in Floyd, but the prosecution’s path did not unfold in a straight line. A later public post summarizing the proceedings said the trial ended abruptly before a jury was even selected, after the circuit court judge, Marc Long, indicated he would grant a motion from the prosecution; the post did not spell out the precise motion or the long-term procedural outcome, only that the trial stopped before it truly began.
