In the early morning hours of July 26, 2017, a passing motorist in a quiet Lorton, Virginia neighborhood noticed a car idling in the middle of Dolsie Grove Drive and reported it as suspicious. When Fairfax County police officers arrived around 3:30 a.m., they discovered a grim scene inside the late-model Acura. Two young men were slumped over, having suffered trauma to their upper bodies. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. The victims were identified as 19-year-old Gregory Dennis, a Black/African American male, and 20-year-old Ryan Cross, both from the nearby town of Dumfries.
Investigators quickly determined the deaths were a double homicide and began to explore potential motives, with detectives suspecting a drug-related connection to the killings. The lack of reported gunshots in the residential area led police to believe the two men were killed at the location where they were found. The Fairfax County Police Department launched a thorough investigation, canvassing the neighborhood for any information and using aerial documentation to process the crime scene. The bodies of Dennis and Cross were transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for autopsies to officially determine the cause and manner of their deaths.
Less than a week after the discovery, the investigation led to an arrest. On July 31, 2017, authorities apprehended 21-year-old Kelsey Jordan McCrimmon of Lorton. McCrimmon was initially taken into custody on an unrelated robbery charge stemming from an incident earlier that month where he allegedly robbed a man at gunpoint during a cell phone sale arranged online. Following his arrest, the Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney authorized felony warrants charging McCrimmon with two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Gregory Dennis and Ryan Cross. The case against McCrimmon highlighted the tragic impact of drug-related violence on the community.
