VIRGINIA BEACH — Two of Scott Seitz’s neighbors hadn’t seen him in a few days, and they’d become concerned, according to court documents.
When the 66-year-old didn’t answer their knocks on his door Sunday, they entered through an unlocked door. Upstairs, one neighbor found Seitz bound and dead on the floor and called police, according to a criminal complaint filed this week in Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
A cause of death wasn’t indicated in the court records and a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office didn’t respond Thursday to a request for information.
While working Sunday to clear Seitz’s townhouse on Roebling Lane, officers found a barricaded door, the complaint said. Once in, they found Seitz’s son, Seth. The 25-year-old had abrasions on his hands and legs, and one hand was sprained and swollen.
On Monday, Seth Seitz was charged with second-degree murder. He’s being held without bond in the city jail. Annette Miller, one of two public defenders appointed to represent him, declined to comment on the case Thursday.
Court records show Seth Seitz has been charged with attacking his father and mother on multiple occasions over the past seven years. He’s also been charged repeatedly with violating protective orders preventing him from having any contact with them, and has been ordered to undergo multiple psychiatric examinations to determine if he was competent to stand trial. In order to be competent for trial, a defendant must be able to understand the charges they face and help with their defense.
The first time police responded to Scott Seitz’s house for an alleged assault by his son was in July 2017, records indicate. The complaint in that case said Scott Seitz had thrown away some “baggies” while cleaning his son’s room. When Seth Seitz found out, he became angry, punched his father in the arm, then fled with his father’s cellphone, the document said.
The next incident occurred in June 2022 and involved Seth Seitz’s mother. In that case, police reported Seth Seitz had grabbed his mother, shaken her, then picked her up and threw her into a banister when she refused to go buy cigarettes for him. The mother obtained a protective order preventing him from having any contact with her afterward.
Man charged with 2nd-degree murder in death of his father, Virginia Beach police say
Two months later, Seitz’s mother reported that he’d punched and slapped her in the head multiple times, then prevented her from leaving the house or calling police. In addition to the alleged assault, Seitz was charge with violating a protective order and was ordered jailed.
While incarcerated, he called his mother multiple times to ask her to buy food, clothes, toiletries and cigarettes for him, which she refused, the documents said. He also asked if she knew how serious the charges against him were, and whether he was “going to prison for the rest of his life for doing nothing,” the complaint said.
He was again charged with violating a protective order by contacting her, the records show.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
