A Family's Door Was Always Open . . . Until Murder Stepped Inside

RICHMOND, Va. - Larry Walker was an All-American guy: You could find him any evening at the Little League field or running bingo games at the Moose Lodge, and his home was always open to neighborhood kids.

``Sugar, ain't nobody going to do anything to us,'' Walker, 42, breezily replied to a neighbor who urged him to lock his house at night.

But March 25, someone turned on that trust. According to police, one or more youths slipped through his unlocked basement door and methodically murdered Larry Walker, his wife, Emily, and his son, Eddie, 17.

Two 16-year-old boys and a 14-year-old girl are now charged with murder.

``There's just no way to conceive it,'' said one neighbor.

Police say robbery was the motive. It was no secret that Walker kept bingo proceeds at home, although $1,000 he had there that night was not taken. The intruders did take two wallets, about $200, and stole Eddie Walker's sports car for a five-day flight from the law.

But the motives may not be so simple. Stevan Rea, who lived three blocks away, has confessed involvement in the crime, according to his attorney. The youth believed that Mrs. Walker had an affair with his father that broke up his parents' marriage, the lawyer said.

``He believed it because that's what his mother told him,'' the attorney, Henry Conner Jr., said.

The Walkers' Lakeside community is a working-class suburb of Richmond.

Walker's domain was the Lakeside Little League field one block from their home. Walker, who sold

heating oil, had coached there for a decade, and for six years had been president of the association.

He would hustle from the park to the Lakeside Moose Lodge, a half-mile away, where he was junior governor. He helped run bingo games on Mondays to benefit the Little League and Tuesdays to help the lodge.

Teen-agers came to visit their sons, Larry ``Eddie'' Walker, 17, and Christopher Walker, 14. The Walkers kept the back door unlocked, and installed a pool table for the youngsters. It was common for teen-agers to stroll in uninvited and stay for a meal or the night, the neighbors say.

Eddie was a high-school junior. He played saxophone in the band, kept up his grades and was a pitcher on the junior-varsity team.

But Chris hung out with a group who caused problems.

``I guess you'd call them rabble rousers,'' said Terry LeHew, who helps care for the Little League field. ``It was mostly kid stuff: trying to break in the concession stand here, or setting a fire on the press box floor to keep warm.''

But not all kid stuff. In February, the front window of a black family in the mostly white neighborhood was shattered by a brick and two bottles filled with kerosene. The bottles did not ignite, but Christopher Walker was charged and sent to a juvenile detention center last month. He was there when his parents died.

Police quickly named three suspects. Rea, a friend of Chris Walker, was a grade-school dropout working with his father on a construction job.

Last year, Rea and another teen-ager stole Walker's car and a bag containing bingo money. The youths did not know of the cash and ``threw the satchel out the car. It's somewhere on the Blue Ridge Parkway,'' said Conner, Rea's attorney. Each youth paid Walker $1,100 restitution when the two were placed on probation last December, Conner said.

Police also named a 14-year-old girl who had run away from home and been found the previous Friday at Rea's home, and Christopher Palmer, who had met Rea at a trade school.

According to Michael Morchower, attorney for Palmer, the three took Eddie Walker's silver Camaro to Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio. They were finally found asleep in the car, parked at a boat ramp in a rural area 35 miles from Richmond.

Police said wallets stolen from the Walkers were still in the car, along with a rifle of the same .22 caliber as shell casings found by the bodies.

Commonwealth Attorney James Gillmore said he intends to try the two boys as adults. Because the girl is younger than 15, she must be tried as a juvenile and cannot face the death penalty.

The lawyers for the girl and Palmer insist that their clients were unaware of the murders.

``They were just running away, just kids being kids,'' Morchower said.

A trial will show ``Stevan was the trigger man and he was alone,'' Morchower said.

Rea's attorney said his client has ``made a full confession to the police admitting his involvement in the shootings.'' He added that Rea ``blamed Mrs. Walker for the breakup of his father's and mother's marriage.'' Earl Rea's wife had taken the children and left him in 1980, remarrying in Florida.

Earl Rea admitted that he had affairs with Mrs. Walker and others, but he said those happened after the breakup of his own marriage.