HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Sara Pierce, a 30-year-old Henrico mother of three who was killed in a domestic incident on Monday, is being remembered by her family and friends as a "good soul" with a "heart of gold."
Henrico County Police arrested her husband, Patrick Lynn Pierce, III, and charged him with a second-degree murder charge and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Tuesday morning, after a briefing hearing in Henrico County Juvenile and Domestic Relations court, a judge ordered Pierce be held without bond and given a court-appointed attorney.
Pierce's next scheduled hearing is set for Feb. 7, 2022, but his attorney told CBS 6 after the hearing that filing for a new bond hearing was not off the table once she was able to meet with him and get more details about the case.
Henrico County Police said they were called to an apartment complex in the 100 block of S. Oak Ave. for a shooting. Sara Pierce was taken to the hospital where she later died of her injuries. Patrick Pierce was taken into custody without incident.
Crime Insider sources said it started with a man and a woman in the parking lot. Sources said the woman was strangled in the parking lot and then taken back inside an apartment where she was shot multiple times.
Sara Pierce's family shared the following statement with CBS 6 on Tuesday:
“We are devastated by Patrick’s actions. It’s a tragic event against someone who didn’t deserve any of it, but the important thing right now is to remember that Sara was such a good soul and those babies are a testament to her good heart. Our job now is to care for these three beautiful children and to make sure they remember what kind of a person their mom was.”
A friend of Sara Pierce's told CBS 6 that she broke down when she heard the news and that her heart goes out to her three children -- two daughters and a son.
"She was a loving, caring person. She would do anything for anyone. She wore her heart on her sleeve," said Tiffany Horton. Horton said she met Pierce when they were students together at Henrico High School. She said they reconnected about five years ago. "She touched everybody that she came across in a positive way. Again, she just had a heart of gold."
Horton said Pierce never gave any indication of issues with her husband, but encouraged anyone in a domestic violence situation to seek help.
"For any man or woman that is suffering in a domestic violence relationship, that if you see any first signs of it or you're in one, you need to get out and seek help. Because a situation like this is drastic on anybody."
Horton said that some of her fellow Henrico High School classmates plan to hold a vigil for Pierce in the near future.
She added that the same group of former students are mourning the loss of another from their year and said it was the victim in a Sunday morning double shooting on the city's Northside.
"He was just fun to be around. He was the life of the party -- any high school dance or function we had, he was the life of the party," Horton said of the victim, who has not been identified by Richmond Police. "But, when it came down to being serious, when it came down to his daughter he was so serious and he took very good care of her. And for a loss like that one, that's even harder on me, because I lost two friends.
