Virginia, Radford University student, Luisa Cutting arrested after stabbing her best friend and roommate Alexa Cannon. Social media posts reveal clues.
A Virginia college student has been arrested after murdering her best friend and roommate after stabbing her 30-40 times with a butcher knife in an off-campus apartment they shared.
Luisa Ines Tudela Harris Cutting, 21, from Jeffersonton was charged with second-degree murder for the death of fellow Radford University student Alexa Cannon, formerly of Roanoke, according to a press release from the Radford City Police Department. Cutting was being held in a local jail on no bond. She was scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Radford General District Court.
Police responded to a 911 call around 7:45 Thursday. During the call, a police dispatcher said, she heard someone shouting and referencing a knife, according to a search warrant obtained by the Roanoke Times.
When officials arrived at the off-campus apartment where the women resided, they found Luisa Cutting covered in blood. Cutting put her arms behind her head and said, ‘Arrest me,’ the search warrant said. ‘I killed her’.
Cannon was pronounced dead at the scene, the search warrant showed.
Luisa Cutting mystery murder motive:
Police did not reveal a motive for the killing. Posts on Cannon’s social media pages indicate that the girls had a close relationship.
Friends of the young women said they were mystified by the murder, and dumbfounded.
‘I’m lost for words, to be honest,’ Shelton Lewis, a Radford University junior, told WDBJ-TV. He lives just a few doors down and said he knew both girls.
‘I really wanna know what was the motive behind it because they were best friends since freshmen year, and that was in 2016. Now it’s 2019 and this has happened,’ he said. ‘I thought that we were all gonna graduate next year.’
Luisa Cutting and Alexa Cannon social media hint at discord:
Social media posts the two women had shared also appeared to show a loving relationship and deep affinity for the other- that said a thinly veiled post last March hinted at discord between the two women.
‘I met this girl two years ago online and somehow we ended up living across from each other for a year, this summer she was equivalent to my mom in Cancun. And unimaginably she still puts up with me and now we’re living together next year. Love you more Lu and everyone pray that we don’t kill each other this year,’ Cannon said on Instagram in March.
While a post Alexa shared on Instagram in June hinted at further discord, ‘Exactly a month now we’re gonna be living together…..pray for us please and thank you.’
Nevertheless social media posts between the two women continued to be upbeat as they publicly championed their friendship- perhaps a bit too openly, as if to perhaps compensate for simmering tensions.
A post on Cannon’s Facebook page from July read: ‘So incredibly proud of my best friend, Luisa Cutting for becoming Latinos Student Alliance’s President! I know you’re going to be amazing with everything you do! Love you more!!’
‘Love you so so much,’ Cutting wrote in response to Cannon’s Facebook post.
Nevertheless it appeared matters continued to devolve, with Cutting increasingly showing frayed nerves and dark musings on her Twitter account.
‘I know death is coming but I still can’t wrap my head around it,’ Cutting posted on January 10.
Two days later, she wrote: ‘My roommate forgot to pay the gas bill and they won’t come turn it on until Monday and now there’s a snow storm on the way we’ll thank god I’ll be drunk all day.’
On January 20, four days before her murder, Alexa posted an uncharacteristically cryptic message on Facebook, an image that read: ‘I stopped venting and started praying because I don’t need sympathy, I need strength.’
The following day, Cutting wrote on Twitter: ‘Dreams getting wilder and wilder.’
Radford University officials release statement:
‘This is a tragic moment for our campus community and the Radford family. During this difficult time, we ask that you provide support to your fellow Highlanders,’ Radford University president Brian Hemphill said in a released statement.
‘The days and months to come will also be difficult as we extend our deepest sympathies, as well as our thoughts and prayers, to the family and loved ones of our student,’ the statement continued.
