Bob Canosa, a veteran investigator with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, died Sunday afternoon at the University of Virginia Medical Center, succumbing to complications from multiple gunshot wounds he suffered nine days ago, according to the Virginia State Police.
He was 55.
VSP spokesman Sgt. Les Tyler said Special Agent M.L. Jones has charged Canosa’s estranged wife, Brenda Lee Canosa, 49, with first-degree murder.
Brenda Canosa, who is being held at Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange, also faces felony charges of malicious wounding and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. She is due to appear in Orange County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court today at 2 p.m., although the date might be pushed back because of the snow.
Brenda Canosa was arrested at her home in Rochelle Dec. 11, the same day Bob Canosa was found shot several times at his home in Unionville.
According to Star-Exponent sources, bullets from a small-caliber rifle struck Bob Canosa’s aorta, pancreas and an artery that attaches to the liver. Bob Canosa is believed to be the person who called 911, although the Orange County Sheriff’s Office is not releasing a transcript of the emergency call, saying it could jeopardize the case.
Bob Canosa’s death comes on the heels of what could have been viewed as promising news in his recovery. Last week, a source close to the family said the victim had undergone surgery to repair his pancreas and aorta. He was also reported to be responding to questions and was aware of what happened to him.
Brenda Canosa taught special education at Madison Primary School until her arrest earlier this month. The Canosas have two grown children and formerly lived together on a horse farm in Madison County.
Investigators have not commented on a possible motive for the shooting.
The couple has been separated for several months, and Bob Canosa, off duty during the shooting, was living in a house on a farm owned by Tim Murphy, chief deputy for the OCSO who runs a canine training service on the property.
Bob Canosa coordinated Orange County’s citizens law enforcement academy, a function he also performed while at the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office in the mid-2000s. He started his law enforcement career in Culpeper in the early 1970s before moving to the town of Orange Police Department.
After retiring from a lengthy tenure of police service in Suffolk, N.Y., he was brought to Culpeper to work on a part-time basis in 2004 by former Sheriff H. Lee Hart. He took the job in Orange in August 2007, shortly before Jim Branch was elected Culpeper’s sheriff.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement