CHURCHTON, Md. (WUSA9) -- They were a loving young couple with toddlers and an occupation that alarmed some, according to a neighbor who remembers the two of them.
Ann Marie Anastasi and Anthony J. Anastasi Jr. were running a business called Snakes R Us out of their two-story home on Battee Drive in the quiet southern Anne Arundel County community of Churchton. They were breeding snakes for sale online in 1998, according to state corporate records. The business eventually folded.
Now in 2015, the Anastasis are at the center of an alleged live-in sex-triangle with a 25-year-old woman that investigators say resulted in a double murder when the relationship between the married couple "cooled".
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The personalities in the case range from the snake-raising couple to an unrelated 18-year old Annapolis man who appears to have turned his back on a loving adoptive home. The Anastasis troubled 13-year old daughter is also accused of double murder.
Charged in the October 6 double murder are the 13-year old, her mother 42-year-old Ann Marie Anastasi and 18-year-old Gabriel Struss, who is described as the 13-year-old's "boyfriend".
The two victims are 40-year-old Anthony J. Anastasi and 25-year-old Jacqueline Riggs of Sault Ste Marie, MI. Investigators say the Anastasis and Riggs were in a three-way sexual relationship.
Anthony Anastasi Jr. was shot to death and Riggs was stabbed to death in a crime that police say was staged to look like a murder-suicide.
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Here is what WUSA9 has been able to glean about each of the individuals from court records and various interviews:
- Anthony J. Anastasi Jr., 40, is one of four siblings. His father lives a short drive from the murder scene. In addition to the defunct snake business, Anastasi was a remodeling contractor who was unemployed after a recent injury. Anastasi died from a gunshot wound and was found in a bedroom.
- Ann Marie Anastasi, 42, has roots in Montgomery County Maryland. She was recently employed as a home health aid and was studying for certification. Ann Marie is one of three people charged in her husband's murder. She is being held without bail in Anne Arundel County.
The two are parents of five children aged 7 to 17.
- Jacquelin I. Riggs, 25 is from Sault Ste. Marie MI. According to a GoFundMe page set up after her death, friends remember her as someone with "a soft and gentle nature". She is described as a loving sister and daughter. Riggs was a child care worker, the page said. Riggs was found stabbed to death in the Anastasis basement.
How Riggs came into the Anastasis orbit in Maryland is unclear, but property records indicate the couple owns a home in Sault Ste. Marie.
- Gabriel Struss, 18, began life in a troubled home in Annapolis. He, along with his older brother Michael, was adopted by a solid middle-class family when the boys were elementary school-aged. Struss gravitated toward music and for a time attended a magnet performing arts program at Broadneck High School. But Struss never graduated and appeared to turn away from his adopted family in favor staying with a grandfather who lived nearby. Police describe the Anastasis 13-year old daughter as Struss' "girlfriend." Struss is accused of lying in wait for two nights to carry out the murders and then trying to convince the 13-year-old to "take the fall" because she would not face a long sentence as a juvenile. Struss is being held without bail in Anne Arundel County.
WUSA9 will not name the 13-year-old involved in the case because of her juvenile status. She has been described as a troubled girl who was attending an alternative school in Anne Arundel County.
Police are still actively investigating the case. Investigators do not have the .380 cal handgun they believe was used to kill Mr. Anastasi or the knife used to kill Ms. Riggs.
Ann Marie Anastasi called 911 the afternoon of October 6th to report her husband had killed himself. Investigators found a .45 cal. handgun near his body that did not match the .380 bullet they eventually recovered from the remains. Riggs was found in the basement, stabbed to death.
The Anastasis 13-year old daughter stayed home from school that day after being called in sick.
Family members of the Anastasis and Jacqueline Riggs have refused WUSA9's requests for interviews.
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