The 54-year-old Clifton man, who police say admitted killing his wife in December, remains in Fairfax County's Adult Detention Center. He's been held there without bond since just before Christmas and is now awaiting action next week by the grand jury.
Police arrested William Martin Cronan Jr., Dec. 15, charging him with murder after finding the body of his wife, Sigrid, 49, in an upstairs bedroom of their home. She'd been shot twice in the head, and police say Cronan called 911 around 9:45 p.m. that night and allegedly admitted killing her.
The Cronans lived at 13209 Twin Lakes Drive, a quiet equestrian neighborhood off Clifton Road, near Twin Lakes Golf Course. He's a construction contractor and she boarded horses.
A Dec. 17 autopsy performed by Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Frances P. Field, revealed two gunshot wounds to Sigrid Cronan's head. Police found one of the bullets in the house; the second was recovered in the victim's left jaw-bone area where it had lodged.
In searches of the home after the crime, besides one bullet, police also seized a semi-automatic handgun, a leather holster, two cartridge casings and Sigrid Cronan's Proteva Pentium III computer and its associated hardware and software, disks and drives.
Police were interested in the computer and its equipment because, according to a Dec. 19 affidavit for a search warrant, Det. Steven Shillingford said he learned that, at the time of her death, Sigrid Cronan was using her computer to e-mail "unknown individuals." He also noted that "these electronic correspondences might have been a motive for her murder."
Cronan was in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court last Wednesday, March 6. At that time, Judge David Schell certified the case against him to the next grand jury for possible indictment. If he is indicted, he's scheduled for a trial in early May.