News : Lion and Lamb closing this week; bed and breakfast ends 15-year run in Vinton

The Hoyt Room was a favorite among the guests of The Lion & The Lamb.

This room at the Vinton bed and breakfast includes a Whirlpool tub.

The Victorian Lion & Lamb bed and breakfast is closing this week.

The last murder will be solved at the Lion and the Lamb this weekend.

The Bed and Breakfast is closing at the end of this month, ending a 15-year run of housing overnight guests and a 13-year run of murder mysteries nearly every weekend.

"It's been a wonderful career," said Rachel Waterbury, who with her husband, Rick, bought the renovated the large Victorian house before opening the business.

"We did this for more than 15 years," said Rachel. "We enjoyed it thoroughly. For me, it was a great stay-at-home job. We accomplished all we wanted to with purhase of house — it was not a money maker but paid for itself. That's why anyone works — to pay your mortgage and utilities and taxes — and we were able to do all that while I worked from home."

Rachel and Rick have moved to Sierra Vista, Arizona, where Rick has found a new job.

Rachel's parents will live in the house, but the bed and breakfast will close at the end of the month.

"My mom is thinking about using the house for a ministry, something with Harvest Valley," said Rachel. Harvest Valley runs a home for women, and other ministries.

"I don't know how it will evolve," she said. "She is working with Victoria Fink of the Harvest Valley Ministry."

The Waterburys are on the staff of a Foursquare church in Sierra Vista.

"It's a sister church to Harvest Valley Foursquare of Vinton," said Rachel.

Well over 1,000 murder mystery dinners have taken place at The Lion and the Lamb.

"We have had two or three almost every weekend since 1997," said Rachel. With the exceptions of a few cancellations, there has been a murder mystery for a group of dinner guests to solve every weekend since October of 1997.

The business remains open through this week, as guests have made reservations and one final murder mystery dinner will take place. After that, the future of the business is uncertain.

But even as Rachel and Rick start their new life in a new church and a new town and new jobs, they look back fondly on what they left behind.

rachel and rick in arizona..

"We have so many memories," said Rachel. "We enjoyed being the 'overflow house' for our neighbor Frank Kruse. We just had a birthday party for hiim before we left. He's been a wonderful neighbor. He supported us as we were getting started and jumped through all the different hoops to get approval through city for our business. He came down to city hall and put in a good word for us when nobody understood what a bed and breakfast was."

The Waterburys enjoyed living in Vinton, said Rachel.

"We liked the small town life. It was a good place to raise kids," she said. Now Rachel's parents and two siblings live here, even though she has moved away.

The Waterbury's oldest daughter will stay in Iowa and attend Wartburg. Their youngest two daughters will soon start school in Arizona.