Why is Woodbridge, Virginia so murdery?

Woodbridge sits in Prince William County, Virginia, a town of 4,668 as the hosts put it in 2022, named for a wooden toll bridge that carried Kings Highway traffic across the river and was washed away in a storm in 1807. The crossing was not replaced on that spot until a small iron bridge arrived in the mid-twentieth century, and the old plantation that gave the place its name is a golf course now. James and Jimmie come here for six murders in three episodes, spread across three towns within 25 miles.

It is a count built by accumulation rather than one awful afternoon. Episode 298 takes in two killings in Woodbridge itself, episode 397 goes six miles to Dumfries for two, and episode 444 reaches 21 miles to McLean for two. The dates run from 1979 to 2017, with stops in 1990 and 2001, so four decades and three towns each quietly contribute their pair.

That puts the town at rank 211 overall and third in Virginia. It counts the show's cases, not anybody's crime statistics: the show picks the towns, and Woodbridge simply keeps turning up.