Sounak Sengupta
The sleepy town of Galax in Virginia was shocked by the double homicide of a single mom and her kid in March 2016. Upon receiving a call, the authorities rushed to the home of Alyssa Kenny, only to find the mother and her infant daughter, Ana Alley, dead. Investigation Discovery’s ‘Murder Comes to Town: Friendly Foes’ dives deep into the complex case, helping viewers understand the complexities and the investigation procedures involved.
How Did Alyssa Kenny and Anastasia Alley Die?
Alyssa Ann Kenny was the daughter of Stacy and Francis Kenny. A free-spirited woman, the Norristown High School graduate also served as the co-captain of the cheerleading team in college. In 2011, Kenny moved to Galax in southwestern Virginia to be around her beloved uncle. In the city, she found love in her Austin Alley, and the pair welcomed a beautiful daughter named Anastasia Leighann Alley in June 2014. By 2016, around the time of the incident, 28-year-old was a single mother whose life revolved around her toddler.
Apart from her mother and siblings, Kenny was close to her stepfather, Kevin Ludy. She talked to her mother every day and proudly told her all about the memories she made with her daughter, such as giving updates on the new words the latter learned. The lives of the family members and friends of Kenny and Alley forever changed on March 10, 2016, when the Galax Police Department received a complaint from a neighborhood regarding an open door.
When the police arrived at Kenny’s residence, they were shocked to discover the dead body of Kenny. Investigators believed that Kenny woke up after hearing someone breaking into the house and facing the intruder. She fought with him to death, and her corpse bore the marks of the violence that ensued and strangulation marks. The intruder then went into Alley’s room, raped the infant, and suffocated her.
The sheer violence of the brutal crime was bewildering. To honor the passing of the mother-daughter duo, the family of Kenny and Alley formed the Ally and Ana Foundation, which grants scholarships to assist in paying for daycare costs and pursuing dreams, whether in higher education or a trade. They have also installed a park bench that serves as a memorial of the mother and daughter just outside the Galax Police Station.
Who Killed Alyssa Kenny and Anastasia Alley?
The police could not come up with any suspects or clues initially, and no arrests were made for about two months. However, on May 17, 2016, the Virginia Bureau of Forensic Science issued a report that one of the DNA samples retrieved from Alley had finally found a match. The DNA of Richard Denny Nofsinger Jr., 37, had been a match with the sample from the crime scene. After consulting with Carroll County Commonwealth Attorney Nathan Lyons, arrest warrants were issued, and Richard was arrested without any incident.
After his arrest, investigators found a vast number of pornographic images related to minor children on his phone. The police believed that Richard was a pedophile who wanted to commit sexual acts with Alley, but her mother came in the way and got killed. He was charged with the capital murder of Alley and the first-degree murder of Kenny. Before being put on trial, he was being held in the New River Valley Regional Jail without bond. He had also been charged federally by a Special Agent of the U.S. Secret Service for the pornographic materials retrieved from his phone.
Richard Denny Nofsinger Remains Imprisoned Today
The United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Abingdon convicted Richard Denny Nofsinger after he agreed to a plea deal and pled guilty to committing the double homicide. Kenny’s mother, Stacy Ludy, was one of the few relatives of the victims who directly spoke with Richard before his sentencing. Stacy said, “We basically told him how much we loved Ally and Ana and how beautiful they were as people and that he had no right to take them from us.”
In October 2017, Richard was sentenced to two consecutive life terms, comprising one without the chance of parole. He also pled guilty to possessing pornographic images and videos of minors that police retrieved from searching his cell phone. In the videos, the police could discern at least two minors with whom Richard engaged in sexual acts. For that, he was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison in February 2017.
Acting U.S. Attorney Mountcastle said, “This defendant is a serial predator, repeatedly targeting the most vulnerable in our community, single mothers and their young children. On repeated occasions, he gained the trust of single mothers to gain access to their toddlers so he could film himself engaging in sexual acts with those children. The court’s sentence takes a dangerous, serial predator out of our community and probably saved other single mothers and their children from future despicable acts by this defendant.” As per official records, Richard, 43, is presently incarcerated at the State Prison in Sussex.
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