CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Valarie McElroy’s daughters remembered their mother as a beautiful woman with a “heart of pure gold.”
During a plea hearing Monday morning, Chesapeake Circuit Court Chief Judge Marjorie Arrington read letters written by her two daughters, Candice Daniels and Lynthis McElroy as Anthony Johnson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison.
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On November 27, 2022 my heart was shattered into a million pieces when Anthony Johnson brutally took my mother Valarie McElroy’s life. I never knew pain could cut so deep into my soul until that day. My family and I were forever changed. My grandparents lost their daughter. My aunt and uncle lost their sister. My sister and I were robbed of our mother.
— Lynthis McElroy, victim impact statement excerpt
At 58, Valarie McElroy was proud to be part of the deaf ministry community.
“I was able to be myself,” Lynthis McElroy said. “That’s all she wanted because she didn’t get to have that in her life. She had to conform and be what everybody else wanted her to be. As far as me and Candice … we were able to be whatever it is that we wanted to be. We’re both business owners, we never had to be anything but ourselves.”