WASHINGTON - D.C. police are now reporting that robbery could have been the motive for the murder of Friendship Heights residents Mike and Virginia Spevak. A computer and several other items were missing from the couple's home, yet there was no evidence of forced entry.

Police focused their investigation into the murders of a well-known and well-loved Friendship Heights, D.C. couple on an alley near where the couple's burned-out car was found, gathering evidence and detaining four people for questioning, sources told ABC 7/NewsChannel 8 Monday.

The bodies of psychiatrist Michael Spevak, 68, and wife, Virgina, 67, a retired school teacher, were found in their home in the 5000 block of Belt Road NW on Saturday night. They had last been seen Thursday, police believe.

Monday's developments took place in the 500 block Ingraham Street, just a half-block from where the murdered couple's burned-out car was found on Sunday. Detectives seized possible evidence, including what sources described as a safe, from behind a rowhouse on the block.

Police brought in four people from a rowhouse on the block for questioning and obtained a search warrant for the premises. Police said the people were not suspects in the murders as of the time they were brought in for questioning.

On the record, police were not saying much.

"It's an open alley and the evidence ended up there, behind that address, and we're not saying that that address or the persons associated with that address are involved as part of our investigation," D.C. Police Cmdr. Rodney Parks said Monday. 

Police sources say they seized a safe from the alley.

The alley remains scorched where the Spevaks' burned-out car was found early Sunday morning.

Investigators search for clues in the alley behind Ingraham Street NW.

A neighbor said she found Michael Spevak's burned ID card near the home.

"I almost burst into tears," said the woman, who didn't want to be identified. "It really angered me that someone thought they could come and torch the car in this alley and that nobody would notice."

The medical examiner's report indicates the husband died of sharp and blunt force trauma to the head and neck, and Virginia Spevak died of sharp force injuries to the neck, chest and abdomen, and blunt force injuries to the head. Sources say Mrs. Spevak had been tied up.

Investigators are also looking into any possible links to Mr. Spevak's work with troubled youth and his wife's volunteer work with recently released inmates.