A man charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of his girlfriend’s parents was found dead Thursday in a Virginia jail, authorities reported.
Fairfax County police confirmed that Nicholas Giampa, 24, was discovered dead around 2 a.m. in his cell at the county jail, where he had been held since 2018. While the investigation into Giampa’s death is ongoing, preliminary findings suggest no foul play.
Giampa was arrested in December 2017 in connection with the fatal shootings of Scott Fricker, 48, and Buckley Kuhn-Fricker, 43, at their home in Virginia.
The case drew national attention due to evidence of Giampa’s neo-Nazi beliefs. Neighbors recalled that as a teenager, Giampa had once mowed a swastika into a community field.
Court records reveal that, at the time of the killings, Kuhn-Fricker’s 16-year-old daughter told police she and Giampa had formed a suicide pact after her parents forbade their relationship. They had discussed “wounding her parents if they tried to intervene.” The Frickers opposed the relationship after discovering Giampa’s association with neo-Nazi groups online and learning that he had previously been charged as a juvenile with possessing child sexual abuse images.
Fricker and Kuhn-Fricker were shot after confronting Giampa in their daughter’s bedroom. The daughter had given Giampa a security code, allowing him to enter the home after her parents went to bed.
According to police, after the daughter unlocked her bedroom door, Giampa retrieved a handgun and shot both Fricker and Kuhn-Fricker. The daughter reported that Giampa then pointed the gun at her head, but it failed to fire. Giampa, 17 at the time, then shot himself in the forehead. He was hospitalized for weeks but survived.
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During a 2018 hearing, psychologists testified that Giampa had suffered brain damage from the self-inflicted gunshot wound, leaving him unable to fully understand trial proceedings. However, at least one psychologist suggested that Giampa might eventually recover sufficiently to participate in his defense.
Giampa’s jury trial had been postponed three times and was scheduled for January, according to online court records.
