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Cho Family Not Well Known In Neighborhood

April 17, 2007

By Peter Hardin

CENTREVILLE, Va. — In the Centerville neighborhood of three-story townhouses where Cho Sueng-Hui's family lives, neighbors described them as people who kept to themselves and were polite.

"The woman always smiled and waved — that's it," said Doris Main, a retiree, who didn't know the couple had a son.

The neighborhood is made up of neatly kept, modern townhouses, some of them brick and some of them paneled. At the lemon-colored home of the Chos, a brass coach light was one of the only decorations on the exterior.

Main said she found the killings at Virginia Tech and the link to her quiet suburban neighborhood "extremely shocking." A retired teacher, she saw police enter the Cho house across the street on Truitt Farm Drive the night before.

Her husband, Marshall, a retired stock broker, saw bright bursts of light from flash photography inside the home when police were there.

This morning, dozens of reporters and cameramen roamed the neighborhood and photographed the Cho home as Fairfax County police looked on.

Only a mile or so away, in a neighborhood of larger lawns, lots and single-family homes, friends and neighbors gathered in the brick colonial home of Reema Samaha, one of the Virginia Tech fatalities.

A friend, Danielle Ragole, called Reema family-oriented, sweet and caring.

"There was a presence about her that nobody's ever going to forget. She's an unforgettable person," Ragole said.

The neighborhood was quiet today except for an occasional airplane cruising low overhead before landing at nearby Dulles International Airport.

Peter Hardin is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.