Hartwood woman died as she lived - mysteriously

Date published: 12/7/2003

Danita Tipton

Willie K. George

A two-story house in a remote section of Stafford County explodes, lighting the clear October sky like a giant bonfire.

Moments later, a man jumps into a gold Lexus and kicks up gravel as he races down the driveway and then up the two-lane road.

Inside the house, across what appears to have been a couch, investigators find a woman’s body—dead not from the raging fire but from several gunshots.

About three hours later and 130 miles away, the Lexus—an eight-cylinder GS 400 traveling well above the posted speed—careens out of control in the darkness on a straight stretch of rural roadway.

The 2000-model luxury sedan strikes a cluster of trees with such force that the engine and transmission break loose and hurtle 75 feet.

Then the vehicle bursts into flames, incinerating a man who had been partially ejected from the passenger side.

Two fires, two deaths—two of the Army’s top-notch warrant officers dead within hours.

One murder or two?

Could she have been killed because of her ties to the White House?

Could he have been killed as a cover-up?

Or was it something else?

Neighbors were left afraid. Co-workers and relatives were left confused.

Who held the answers?

‘Something’s not right’

Danita Tipton bought her 1,508-square-foot home in the tiny community of Cropp in November 2001.

It was one of about a half-dozen nearly identical houses built by Sunshine Home Builders within sight of Hartwood Airport.

Like the others, the one at 288 Cropp Road was two stories tall. It had three bedrooms, three baths and a two-car, side-entry garage.

Tipton hadn’t been there long when Robert Dorminey decided he’d do the neighborly thing and introduce himself.

The avid skydiver and pilot bought his property two decades earlier and had lived there full time since retiring from the Fairfax County school system.

The house Dorminey and his wife share sits about a quarter-mile off the main road, and he would walk by Tipton’s property twice a day—in the morning to get his newspaper and in the afternoon when he went for his mail.

He stopped to say hello one weekend when he saw her out working in her yard.

The conversation floored him.

She was tense.

Date published: 12/7/2003