now back to nightmare on 31st street. reporter: new year s day 2006. a richmond, virginia family is slashed and beaten to death in her own home. the murders leave the community reeling. so far police have only one person of interest family friend johnny hott. we extremely frustrated. we were getting to the point where we were concerned about solving it early. reporter: police asked hott to come back for a fourth time to be fingerprinted, to give a dna sample, and to take a polygraph. the question is why were they looking so hard at him? we were having a tremendous difficulty helping him get his alibi. and in police work if we can t alibi you then we re always going to keep you in one category or the other. there were no other persons known at the time. reporter: on a friend s advice hott hired a lawyer, stephen benjamin, which he says immediately raised the hackles of investigators. why did i get a lawyer?
reporter: johnny hott was at a friend s house when he got the news. and kind of shook me. and said, they found them. they ve arrested them. they got them. they ve caught them. really, though, it wasn t until i watched it on tv and i saw that they apprehended someone that i felt like possibly it was over. reporter: it all left those grieving for the harveys with a different kind of sorrow. the murders of two parents and two little girls hadn t been personal at all but rather monstrously impersonal, allegedly committed by two career criminals from out of town. the anger that goes along with this, that we actually had someone that invaded our city to prey upon the citizens of richmond. reporter: someone who happened onto 31st street. as far as we could tell, it was a crime of opportunity. a nice two-story brick house in a nice neighborhood on a nice day, with the front door open.
had just been slaughtered. reporter: police suspected the family may have known their killer. that s when i started to feel really strange. i could feel my heart beating. whenever you see some type of violence like this, the cutting, the slashing, the anger involved, you tend to think it s some type of domestic issue or a known person. reporter: and then a second family was discovered murdered. they were bound, gagged, obviously had trauma to the head and neck area. reporter: are they connected to the nightmare on 31st street? a new year, a new beginning. spending time with family and friends. that s what was supposed to happen at this house in richmond, virginia. bryan and kathryn harvey and their two little girls were planning a new year s day party, and all their friends were invited. we were going to see each other on new year s day. reporter: musician johnny hot planned to attend the new year s day gathering at the harveys . it was a party the harvey family