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Funeral is Friday for slain Nokesville woman
Funeral services will be held Sept. 24 for the Nokesville woman who was killed by her husband last week.
Jennifer Bates, 38, of Erika Drive in Nokesville, died in a murder-suicide on Sept. 18. Police said her husband, 42-year-old Robert Bates, shot her in the upper body before turning the gun on himself.
According to Nikki Brown, a spokesperson for Prince William County, Jennifer Bates was a therapist with the Community Services Board. First hired in 2004, she worked in the Supported Employment Division, helping residents with serious mental illnesses to choose careers and obtain jobs. She also worked with them as an employment counselor, assisting them in various ways once they were employed.
She was also instrumental in producing the Mental Health Awareness program that the CSB conducts each May and she was otherwise “very involved” in the department's activities.
“Jennifer was a special individual who was professional well-respected and personally well-liked,” said Tom Geib, director for the Community Services Board. “She was an individual who expended herself to consumers and staff alike. She will be greatly missed.”
Both Bates died last Saturday morning after an apparent argument in their car in eastern Prince William.
According to Officer Jonathan Perok, a spokesman for the Prince William Police Department, police were called to the 15700 block of Widewater Drive in Montclair around 7:34 a.m. Sept. 18 for a shooting in progress.
Perok said it is unclear why the couple was in the neighborhood but they appear to have gotten into a verbal argument and pulled into the cul-de-sac on Widewater Drive.
“This is where the argument escalated and the husband allegedly pulled a handgun on the victim and shot her in the upper body,” according to Perok's written report. “The husband, in turn, shot himself in the head.”
Robert Bates was pronounced dead at the scene while Jennifer Bates was taken to a hospital, where she later died.
Perok said on Monday that officers had been called to the couple's home in Nokesville on June 26 around 10 p.m. for a domestic dispute. During that incident, Robert Bates was charged with domestic assault and battery and both of them were charged with an emergency protective order, barring them from contact with each other.
The protective order had expired before last week's shooting and neither of the Bates had filed an extension.
Perok said Monday that it is unclear whether the couple was separated at the time of the shooting. They were still legally married and both claimed the Nokesville home as their legal address.
As both the victim and assailant are dead, there is little left to investigate and many questions will probably be left unanswered, Perok said. Though the incident is still officially under investigation, detectives are mostly working to ensure that nothing was missed.
“Now they're probably going to just make sure that everything has been observed before they clear it out,” Perok said.
Visitation for Jennifer Bates will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, at Covenant Funeral Service, 2801 Jeff Davis Highway in Fredericksburg. Funeral services are planned there for noon on Friday, Sept. 24.
Call the funeral home at 540-898-4326 or visit covenantfuneralservice.com for details.
Funeral information for Robert Bates was not immediately available.
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