What Happened to the D.C. Snipers? Inside the Aftermath of Their Horrific Killing Spree and How One Turned on the Other By Jessica Sager

John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo terrorized the population when they went on a serial shooting spree in October 2002.

Muhammad, then 41, and Malvo, then 17, shot and killed 10 people and injured three across Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. within three weeks, according to The New York Times. They were later linked to 11 other shooting incidents that resulted in five more deaths, per The Washington Post.

Muhammad’s ex-wife, Mildred Muhammad, spoke about her own experience with the killer in the Investigation Discovery documentary Hunted By My Husband: The Untold Story of the D.C. Sniper, which premiered on Oct. 28.

In it, she details the stalking, harassment and abuse she suffered before Muhammad began murdering strangers in the Beltway area.

“We really concentrate on the 20%, which is physical violence, but we rarely concentrate on the 80%, which is domestic abuse,” Mildred told WTOP. “I am constantly erased from the story. I am hopeful that the audience will understand, much more than what they do, that abuse happens before the violence does.”

So what happened to the D.C. Snipers? Here’s everything to know about John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo’s lives after they were caught.

Who were the D.C. Snipers?

Muhammad was born John Allen Williams in Louisiana on Dec. 31, 1960.

CNN reported that after divorcing his first wife in 1985, Muhammad married Mildred Green in 1988, with whom he shared children John Jr., Salena and Taalibah.

Muhammad served as a combat engineer in the 1991 Gulf War, earning the rank of sergeant and a medal for expert-level marksmanship before his honorable discharge in 1994. Mildred later told the Associated Press (via CBS News) that Muhammad’s behavior changed when he returned to their Tacoma, Wash., home after his military service and that he likely had undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mildred filed for divorce in October 2000, alleging that Muhammad was abusive and had kidnapped their children. She got a restraining order against him and moved to Clinton, Md., just outside Washington, D.C., but he continued to track, threaten and harass her.

Lee Boyd Malvo was born Feb. 18, 1985, in Kingston, Jamaica. His parents split up when he was young, and Malvo was estranged from his father, Leslie Malvo, The Washington Post reported. His mother, Una James, often left Malvo with her relatives for months at a time to work in other countries.

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The mother and son moved to Antigua in 1999, where James left him alone again for several months in 2001, when he began staying with Muhammad. He briefly reunited with James in Fort Myers, Fla., that May. But Malvo stuck by Muhammad and moved with him to Bellingham, Wash., in October 2001. By the following summer, in July 2002, they traveled across the country to the Beltway area.

In October 2012, Malvo told The Washington Post of his relationship with Muhammad, “The groundwork was laid in Antigua because I leaned on him, I trusted him. I was unable to distinguish between Muhammad the father I had wanted and Muhammad the nervous wreck that was just falling to pieces. He understood exactly how to motivate me by giving approval or denying approval. It’s very subtle. It wasn’t violent at all.”

He added, “He picked me because he knew he could mold me. He knew I could be what he needed me to be.”

What did the D.C. Snipers do?

On Oct. 2, 2002, Muhammad and Malvo embarked on what would be a three-week murder spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., killing 10 people.

Their victims were strangers in the wrong place at the wrong time: Premkumar A. Walekar, 54, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25 and Dean Harold Meyers, 53, at gas stations; James D. Martin, 55 and Linda Franklin, 47, in parking lots; Sarah Ramos, 34, at a post office; James L. Buchanan, 39, while mowing the lawn of a commercial property; Pascal Charlot, 72, while walking at night and Conrad E. Johnson, 35, while standing on the top step of the commuter bus he operated.

Caroline Seawell, 43, and Jeffrey Hopper, 37, were shot in parking lots, and Iran Brown, 13, outside of his Bowie, Md., middle school, but all three survived.

Each victim and survivor was hit with a single shot from a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, CNN reported, and the then-unknown killers were given the moniker of the D.C. Snipers. According to the FBI, they cut a hole in the trunk of the car near the license plate, and Muhammad would shoot from there.

Malvo later testified that Muhammad planned to kill six White people daily for 30 days, according to The Daily Telegraph.

How did the D.C. Snipers get caught?

Throughout the shooting spree, witnesses caught glimpses of a vehicle, leading to one of their first clues.

Eventually, investigators discovered that Muhammad had purchased a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice in September 2001, which was registered to a Camden, N.J., address, CNN reported.

On Oct. 24, 2002, police tracked the vehicle to a rest stop in Frederick County, Md., where they found Muhammad and Malvo asleep in the car.

Ballistics evidence linked Muhammad and Malvo to all of the murders, as well as to a shot fired into a Michaels craft store on Oct. 2, that didn’t hit any people, according to The New York Times.

What were the D.C. Snipers’ sentences?

After their arrests, Muhammad and Malvo were each found guilty of two capital murder charges and one weapons charge in Virginia, per The Baltimore Sun.

Muhammad went on the defensive and ultimately served as his own lawyer in court. Meanwhile, Malvo claimed that he had been under Muhammad’s influence and later testified against him.

In Maryland, Muhammad was convicted of six murder charges, while Malvo pleaded guilty to six murder counts. They each received six consecutive life terms in prison. Muhammad was later sentenced to death.

What happened to the D.C. Snipers?

Muhammad was executed by lethal injection at about 9 p.m. ET on Nov. 10, 2009, ABC News reported. He was 48 years old.

Hours earlier, then-Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine declined to commute Muhammad’s sentence to life in prison. He had exhausted the appeals process earlier, as the Supreme Court declined to hear his case.

Some of Muhammad’s family members visited him earlier in the day, and he reportedly requested to keep his last meal private. According to Greensville Correctional Center spokesman Larry Traylor, when asked if he had any last words, Muhammad “did not even look at us or acknowledge us.”

Malvo began his life sentence at the supermax Red Onion State Prison in Virginia. CNN reports that Malvo married in March 2020, but his spouse’s name isn’t publicly known.

According to the Associated Press, changes to laws in Virginia and Maryland prohibit minors from getting life sentences without parole. Malvo, who is serving his sentence in Virginia, would be eligible for parole after 20 years in prison in the state, but his request was denied in a September 2022 hearing.

More recently, in September 2024, a Maryland judge elected to postpone a resentencing hearing for Malvo indefinitely because he insisted on attending in person, and the state of Virginia wouldn’t allow him to leave Keen Mountain.

Malvo transferred to Keen Mountain Correctional Center in September 2024, WTOP reported. Keen Mountain is reportedly a security level 4 prison that houses inmates with life sentences who haven’t exhibited disruptive behavior for two years.