Federico murder case  In 2018, a Virginia man shot his wife, killed her boyfriend, attempted to kill her unborn child, and then, from prison, conspired with family and friends to hire someone to kill his wife's father and brother. Five people have been implicated in these crimes. On August 24, 2018 at 3:30 AM Sarah Federico was shot multiple times, critically wounding her and her unborn child. The following day, the incinerated remains of her live-in boyfriend, Lawrence Howell, were found in a fire pit on the lot adjacent to the home of Joshua Federico, Sarah's estranged husband. Sarah Federico identified Josh Federico as the trigger man. At trial, Sarah Federico testified that her husband, with whom she had been separated for several months, fatally shot Howell after he took their dogs outside early in the morning on Aug. 24. Frightened by the gunfire but still not clear as to what was happening, Sarah Federico said she saw Howell stumble inside the house and collapse behind the living room couch. “Larry was dead, I assumed,” she testified. At that point, she looked for her gun but it wasn’t in the drawer where she kept it. With her husband now in the house, and dressed in black, she ran to a first-floor bathroom and tried escaping out a window, but couldn’t get it open. Federico burst in and shot her in the arm and she collapsed on the floor. Sarah Federico testified that her husband then directed her into the hallway, saying “he was going to make it look like Larry and I were fighting.” Wounded, Sarah Federico went out on the front porch and Josh Federico followed. Scared about what might come next, Sarah Federico didn’t try to flee as Josh Federico began cleaning up the bloody scene with paper towels and bleach. At one point, Josh Federico directed Sarah Federico to scratch her dead boyfriend’s face to make it appear they had been fighting, and then Josh Federico had her fire a gun with her left hand — she was right-handed but had been shot in the right arm — into some paper towels. Josh Federico then went upstairs for a time, he returned and calmly dragged Howell’s body out the garage door with a tarp and put him in her GMC Yukon. Sarah Federico was in the kitchen when Josh Federico returned, and he went into the living room, grabbed a pillow and used it to silence the sound of gunfire as he shot her again — in the abdomen.