Virginia Run Elementary teacher Julie Mansfield Adams died a violent death last week, but the images her stabbing brings to mind couldn't be further from the way she'll be remembered at the school.
"It's impossible to think of Julie without a smile coming to your face," said Terry Hicks, principal of the Centreville school. "She was incredibly energetic and positive in her approach to life. And she was a dedicated teacher, well-liked by the other teachers, students and staff."
Authorities found Adams, 52, murdered in her Annandale home, Saturday afternoon. According to Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Mary Mulrenan, an autopsy showed that "she died of a single stab wound to the upper body."
Police also believe her homicide may be "domestic in nature" and related to the apparent suicide of a man, 43, who was found burned beyond recognition in a minivan in West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest. Authorities believe him to be Donald R. Coffield, a convicted sex offender with whom Adams had lived for the past six years.
He's on the official, Virginia State Police registry for sex offenders. And according to information contained there, he was convicted of rape in Davidson County, Tenn., on Aug. 17, 1995.
Neighbors say Coffield and Adams had a troubled relationship punctuated by occasional police visits to their home, and police spokesman Rich Perez said Tuesday that he knows of "at least one prior call" there.
He declined to reveal in which room of the house Adams' body was found "because it's an ongoing investigation," but he said "detectives believe she was murdered sometime between Friday and Saturday afternoon."
While Mulrenan acknowledged that Coffield — also known as Donald R. Clifford — is "definitely a suspect" in Adams' death, she said police can't yet connect those dots until evidence is assembled linking him to the crime. Furthermore, she said, the man found inside the burned van has still not yet been positively identified as Coffield or anyone else.
THE GREENBRIAR County, W. Va., Sheriff's Office is heading up the investigation and planned to use dental records to identify the body. However, an apparent suicide note discovered tucked under a rock near the van — which was registered to Adams — included the address of Adams and Coffield's home, plus contact information for his family members.
It was that note that led West Virginia State Police to advise Fairfax County Police on Saturday to go to the couple's home at in the 8300 block of Glastonbury Court in Annandale and check on Adams' welfare. Officers did and found her body around 4:30 p.m.
News of her death stunned her colleagues at Virginia Run Elementary. She'd taught there three years, working with fourth-graders with special needs and learning challenges.
"She'd taught long ago at Wakefield Forest Elementary in Annandale and then stopped to raise her children," said Hicks. "She had three boys; one is currently serving in Iraq, one's at L.S.U. and one lives in Fairfax County and is an electrician."
Hicks said Adams took classes in the latest methods of teaching to bring herself up-to-date so she could better address the needs of her students. "She would do anything to motivate them," said Hicks. "And she really believed that, to get the maximum learning from a child, you'd build a personal relationship with that child."
For example, said Hicks, Adams would dress up funny on School Spirit Day, bring in special meals for her class or talk with her students about baseball. "She worked with about 17 children a year — ones she specifically targeted for intervention," said Hicks. "Julie would do whatever she could to promote learning in her kids."
Adams also team taught with the fourth-grade, general-education teachers who had her students in their classes. So over the course of her three years at Virginia Run, almost all the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders knew her.
Plus, said Hicks, "How do you miss someone who, on our monthly Patriot Day, wore red, white and blue socks and big, red, white and blue glasses with stars on them? And ladybug antlers for Crazy Hat Day? She believed in breaking tension by using humor, and her humor was another way she built relationships with kids."
Hicks said Adams spent "countless hours" of her own time talking to parents on the phone, letting them know every step of the way about their children's education and progress.
"She had a huge heart and was an incredibly generous person," said Hicks. "She would even take care of people's pets if, for some reason, they couldn't."
ON MONDAY, the school system sent a crisis team of social workers and counselors to Virginia Run to be available in case any of the children or adults needed to talk. Parents were notified by both e-mail and backpack letter. Grades four, five and six started the day with individual, class meetings — most, attended by counselors.
"We made sure the kids knew Ms. Adams had died through no fault of her own," said Hicks. "And it's important to us to let the children know they're safe at school. We told them Ms. Adams had become friends with a person who was mean to her and hurt her — but that that person couldn't come to school and hurt them."
The principal said most of the older students had heard the TV news reports of the tragedy. But if any of them asked how Adams had died, said Hicks, "We told them they might want to talk to their parents about that. We said it's under police investigation and our job here [Monday] was to allow them to talk about their feelings."
As for the mood of the school, it's definitely sad. "We've lost a good friend, and I have, too," said Hicks. "I get very close to all my teachers. We're a close-knit faculty and consider ourselves to be family. And when something tragic happens, the family comes together and supports each other, and that's what we're doing."