Joshua Danehower Arrested in Fatal Shooting of Sleeping Nonprofit Founder Gret Glyer, Virginia Cops

Publish date: 2024-05-04

As a FedEx employee headed to his shift at Dulles International Airport on Tuesday, he was stopped by Virginia airport police. It was at that point he learned officers were arresting him over the death of 32-year-old Gret Glyer, a nonprofit CEO and father of two young children who had been found shot in his bed last week.

The package worker, a 33-year-old man from Arlington named Joshua Danehower, had been working for FedEx for less than a month, according to court documents. He reacted calmly to the officers’ arrival and was taken into custody without incident, authorities with the City of Fairfax said Wednesday.

Danehower has been charged with second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a crime, Captain Jeff Hunt said at a press conference announcing the arrest. It appeared as though he had acted alone, added the captain, who commands the City of Fairfax Police Department’s criminal investigations division.

Danehower, who was pictured in his mug shot smirking at the camera, does not appear to be “taking the situation seriously in the slightest,” according to a Thursday charging document. After his bail hearing concluded that day, Fox 5 DC reported, he asked an officer if he could order a pizza.

Gret Glyer, the founder of the fundraising platform DonorSee, was found dead early Friday morning—shot four times in the head, twice in the neck, and four times elsewhere, according to court records.

Patrol officers discovered his body after his wife, Heather, made a 911 call, telling a dispatcher that she believed an intruder had just shot her husband. According to Hunt, investigators believe Heather had been asleep beside her husband at the time of the attack.

Matthew Lasowitz, a Fairfax police lieutenant, told the Daily Mail on Thursday that Danehower had apparently entered the home through an unlocked back door.

“Gret was my best friend and an incredible husband and father,” Heather said in a statement on Wednesday. “He had an amazing heart for helping the people who need it most, and I know that legacy will live on.”

On Thursday, Fox 5 DC reported that it had obtained court documents revealing that Heather had at one point dated Danehower. It was not immediately clear how long or how serious their relationship had been, but the suspect had been attempting to “reconnect” with her, the outlet said.

Heather was “in shock” on Wednesday, a friend told NBC4 Washington.

She and Glyer were married in 2018; they moved to Fairfax with their two young children less than a year ago, according to the Daily Mail.

There has not been a reported homicide in Fairfax, a city of more than 20,000 people, since 2008, according to WTOC.

Danehower was identified by Fairfax authorities as a potential suspect in Glyer’s killing after “someone came forward” with a tip, Hunt said.

The suspect was initially identified as authorities as “an acquaintance of the family” by Hunt on Wednesday. He added that authorities were investigating a potential connection the men may have had through their church.

To which church Glyer belonged has not been confirmed, but a friend on Facebook announced that his memorial service would be held at The Falls Church Anglican on Friday. In a message sent to the church community, a pastor said, “Our hearts are broken, confused and even angry,” according to NBC4 Washington.

Glyer founded DonorSee in 2016, according to the company’s website, in order to create a “giving platform” allowing contributions to be handed over “directly to people in need,” with a particular focus on alleviating poverty and famine in Africa. The company, which employs roughly 15 people, also provides donors with video updates showing how their funds are being used.

On a DonorSee page set up to help Glyer’s family, a statement was posted grieving his loss as “a courageous and kind leader, who treated everyone like family... he always had a positive attitude that encouraged you to push a little harder, do a little more, and smile a little bigger.”

The interim chief of the platform, Owen O’Doherty, told The Washington Post in a Wednesday interview that he did not not know Danehower.

According to his LinkedIn profile and online obituary, Glyer had moved in 2013 to become a teacher at a Bible school in Malawi, an East African nation, after several years spent working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. While there, he had founded a nonprofit called Housing for Orphans and Widows in Malawi, which worked to construct homes in rural areas.

“As anyone who has ever come into contact with Gret will tell you, he was an amazing light and a spirit of buoyant optimism with a quick wit, a big personality, and a great vision to make the world a better place for those less fortunate,” O’Doherty wrote in a separate Facebook tribute.

“And what a difference he made.”

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