Chester Brown arrives at the Rappahannock County Courthouse Thursday morning, March 21, 2024.
(Photo/Ireland Hayes)
Chester Brown, identified by law enforcement as a “person of interest” early on in the investigation of the murder of Washington resident Doris Critzer, has been charged with her murder almost two years later.
Brown, 64, a former Washington resident, has been charged with first-degree murder and strangulation in connection with the death of Critzer in her home in August 2023.
According to a press release from the Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO), Investigator James W. Jones charged Brown, 64, on Tuesday.
A separate press release from the office of Commonwealth Attorney Art Goff said: “The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office has reviewed the case regarding the death of Doris Critzer on August 23, 2023, and concluded that sufficient evidence now exists to charge Chester Brown with murder and strangulation in connection with her death.”
Brown has been incarcerated since 2024 in Lunenburg County, Va., serving a sentence for grand larceny of a firearm, possession of a firearm while under a protective order and felony possession of a firearm related to a pistol owned by Critzer. Photos of the weapon that had been deleted were uncovered on Brown’s phone after Critzer’s murder.
The gun was not entered into evidence during the trial, but was uncovered months after Brown pointed law enforcement to where he had hidden it, on the edge of a wooded area near his former home on Fodderstack Road inside of a plastic grocery bag. In exchange for divulging the location of the gun, Brown received a lighter sentence.
Critzer, 74, was a longtime resident of Rappahannock County and volunteered frequently at the Rappahannock Food Pantry. She and her family have strong ties to the town and county.
RCSO was assisted in the murder investigation by the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office and Virginia Department of Forensic Science, according to the release.
Critzer’s case was ruled a homicide but until now, no one had been charged with her murder. According to court proceedings, DNA evidence processing was delayed in the crime lab because of statewide backlogs.
No details about DNA evidence uncovered at the scene have been released at this time.
Brown has consistently denied any involvement in Critzer’s murder.
“I didn’t kill nobody, that’s my friend I lost,” Brown said at his sentencing on the gun charges in May 2024. “They keep zooming in on me, holding this murder over my head.”
Brown will soon return to court to have counsel appointed to the case and to set dates for future court proceedings. According to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and the General District Court, the courts have not received the warrant paperwork yet, as of Wednesday morning, but once they do, an initial appearance date will be set in coming weeks.
