REIDSVILLE — Deputies combed through a home in the quiet, mostly rural Bethany community Saturday, investigating Rockingham County’s first homicides of the year.
A husband and wife were killed and their daughter was wounded during a home invasion at 791 Pinewood Road early Saturday, according to investigators with the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office. The couple’s juvenile son was away at camp.
Officers found the bodies of Douglas Troy French, 48, and his wife, Ladonna Mosley French, 45, while responding to a frantic 911 call made at 2 a.m. by the couple’s 19-year-old daughter, Whitley Morgan French. The two had been shot.
Whitley French can be heard pleading for help in the call. She says she’s bleeding, but not from a gunshot.
“Please hurry, my parents are dying,” she screams into the telephone.
“Every deputy in the county is racing to you,” the dispatcher tells her.
On the tape, Whitley French can be heard telling the dispatcher that she awoke to someone in her room. When she screamed, her parents came running in and the intruder shot them and then ran out the front door, she says. She tries CPR on her father. Later, she says he doesn’t have a pulse. She also says her mother looks as if she has stopped breathing.
Whitley French was taken to Annie Penn Hospital where she was released after being treated Saturday, deputies said.
Officials said they don’t have a suspect . A man dressed in dark clothing was seen fleeing the house, officials said. The sheriff’s office didn’t provide more details about the suspect's appearance.
The house sits on a corner lot of the main road through the neighborhood, which abuts farmland. Neighbors mostly know each other.
“People are scared,” said Donald Vernon, who knows the Frenches and their extended family. “They don’t know what to think. We can’t understand why, if it was random, why they would pick that house. You can see all around it.”
A decorative red wreath in the shape of a heart rested on the front door of the family's two-story brick home.
Two SUVs and a Duke Energy truck sat in the yard throughout the day. Douglas French worked for Duke Energy for more than 22 years, most recently in the Rockingham County Operations Center, the company said in a statement.
A large dog could be seen on the back deck of the French home.
“When I heard the call, it was unusual,” said Sheriff Sam Page, who plans to beef up patrols in the area. “We don’t have a lot of home invasions. I am very concerned until someone is brought to justice.”
People were gathering at the home of Ladonna French’s parents, who live down the street. A woman who did not identify herself said it was “not a good time right now” and asked reporters to leave.
The sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information to contact Capt. Billy Parker at 634-3232, Ext. 4101, or Crimestoppers at 349-9683.
Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com
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