Tip spurs search for human remains in two parks, Fairfax County police say – Washington Post

Fairfax County police were searching for human remains in two parks Wednesday after receiving a tip.

Homicide, gang and crime scene detectives, members of the search-and-rescue unit, live find and cadaver dog teams are combing Holmes Run Park, near the 6000 block of Crater Place in the Lincolnia section of Fairfax County, and Lemon Road Park, in the Falls Church area.

Police wrapped up the search of Lemon Road Park without finding anything Wednesday afternoon.

Police declined to say what information led them to those locations, but they said the searches could go on for some time. Holmes Run Park was the scene of a 2013 killing of an MS-13 gang member.

[MS-13 member laughs while recalling killing]

There is a possibility that this situation is gang-related, said Officer Don Gotthardt, a Fairfax County police spokesman. Ive been told its not related to these specific, overlapping investigations that are ongoing.

Gotthardt was referring to the gang-related killing of 15-year-old Damaris A. Reyes Rivas, whose body was found near an industrial area in Springfield on Feb. 11, and the disappearance and return of two other teenage girls from Fairfax County.

Ten people, including six juveniles, have been charged in connection with the killing of the Gaithersburg teen, who police say was held against her will at Springfields Lake Accotink Park, assaulted and then slain on or around Jan. 8.

[Murder charges in slaying of Gaithersburg teen]

Police have declined to name the gang involved, but the girls mother said she had fallen in with MS-13, before voluntarily leaving home in mid-December. Two of those arrested in Damariss killing were also charged in the disappearance of 16-year-old Lizzy Rivera Colindres, who left her Springfield home with her 5-month-old son in mid-January and returned last month.

Damariss killing also has connections to the disappearance of 17-year-old Venus Lorena Romero Iraheta, of Alexandria. Iraheta also left home in mid-January and returned last month.

In addition, Prince William County police said Iraheta had a relationship with a 21-year-old Fairfax man, Christian Alexander Sosa Rivas, who was found dead along the Potomac River in Prince William County on Jan. 12.

Prince William County police have charged six people in the slaying and said it has connections to MS-13.

[Six arrested in MS-13 killing tied to other Va. cases]

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Tip spurs search for human remains in two parks, Fairfax County police say - Washington Post