Murder suspect who killed himself Monday afternoon spent 26 years in prison after conviction of killing his wife in Cartersville.

 

The bizarre murder/suicide case that stretched from West Rome to rural Chattooga County on Monday has taken another twist.

WRGA is reporting that the Rome man who was suspected of killing his Marshall Lane neighbor and of shooting at a woman in Chattooga County before taking his own life had served more than 25 years after jurors convicted him of murdering his estranged wife in Bartow County.

WRGA reports Larry B. Dover, 64, had been on parole for the past six years. He was convicted of murder in Bartow County and began his sentence in February 1983. He served until he was released on parole 26 years later in 2009.

Law enforcement authorities in two counties are still piecing together what led to Monday’s crime spree. The following is based on reports from the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office, Rome Police, The Summerville News, the coroner’s office and reporting by WRGA:

11 a.m. Monday: Authorities say a domestic dispute erupts and continues at a country store where Dover reportedly put a gun to the woman’s head but it misfired. Dover fires several shots into a woman’s vehicle near the intersection of Ga. 337 and the Trion-Teloga Road near Trion in Chattooga County. She was not hurt.

Monday afternoon: Later in the day, the woman went home to find her house on Webb Road near Teloga on fire. Authorities suspect Dover was behind it.

4:45 p.m. Chattooga County deputies locate Dover, sitting in a pickup truck on a dirt road. As law enforcement approach Dover, he puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger. He dies en route to the hospital.

5 p.m. Rome Police respond to a home on Marshall Lane in West Rome concerning “a suspicious death” and find 69-year old Wesley Wayne Stewart, who had been severely beaten.

5:55 p.m. Stewart is pronounced dead.

About the murder case in Cartersville (based on Georgia Supreme Court records posted by leagle.com)

Larry Dover was convicted by jury of murdering his estranged wife, Linda Dover, by stabbing her, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Linda Dover’s mother, Mamie Jo Rowland, testified that Linda had been married to Dover for approximately ten years, and had separated from him on prior occasions, the last being on December 15, 1980. On that night, Linda had fled to her mother’s house, distraught, dressed in a nightgown and housecoat. For the next ten days, Linda and her 8-year-old son, Todd, remained at the homes of her mother or her sister.

Mrs. Rowland further testified that on December 26, 1980, Linda went to the marital home and telephoned her mother from there at about 6:45 p. m., saying she would come by her mother’s house in a few minutes. Linda failed to appear. Mrs. Rowland called the police late that night, met the police at the Dovers’ house, unlocked the door with her key, talked to Dover and Todd, and searched through the house, looking under a bed and in a closet without finding Linda.

The next morning, December 27, Mrs. Rowland and several of her relatives arrived at the Dovers’ house. Linda’s brother saw blood spots on the back patio and found Linda’s body in the crawl space beneath the house, wrapped in a bedspread. She had been stabbed six times.

That morning Lt. Detective Abernathy from the Cartersville Police Department was called to the Dovers’ house, where he met two other officers. Mrs. Rowland stated in court that she instructed her son to give Detective Abernathy her key to the Dovers’ house, and that she was particularly concerned about locating young Todd.

Mrs. Rowland testified that Dover had given her a key to the house after it was built, some eight months before the murder; that she entered the house whenever she wished, day or night; that the Dovers often entered her house at their pleasure; and that she had taken her friends to the Dovers’ house when the Dovers were not at home.

Detective Abernathy testified that he found no one in the house when he entered; that he saw a single bed in the rear bedroom covered only by a blanket; and that he cut out the section of the mattress with a bloodstain. He saw Linda’s automobile parked in the carport. Dover’s truck was missing.

Detective Abernathy left the house around noon, instructing another officer to secure the crime scene. About 4:00 p.m. he returned with investigators from the state crime laboratory, entered the house without a warrant, searched the house thoroughly, and seized a number of items which were later introduced at trial.

That evening an arrest warrant was issued for Dover, and he turned himself in to the police the following day. His truck was recovered in a secluded area of Paulding County.

The child, Todd, testified that after eating supper with his mother and father on December 26, he and his father drove down the road to deliver a present; that his father realized that he did not have the present with him, and returned to the driveway; that his father stepped into the house and left him waiting for a long time; that he tired of waiting and knocked on the locked door of the house, but could not enter; that his father came back to the truck and took him to visit several relatives; that his mother was not in the house when they returned that night; and that early the next day, his father drove him to his paternal grandmother’s house.

A forensic serologist stated at the trial that the blood samples from Linda Dover belonged to International Blood Group A, as did blood on a mattress and a pillow from the Dovers’ house. That blood of human origin was found on the patio and on the bedroom curtain; and that blood of indeterminate origin was found on gloves and lint material recovered from the dryer in the Dovers’ house, from scrapings from the sink and bathtub, and from inside the pocket of trousers worn by Dover when he was taken into custody.