http://wtop.com/local/2017/02/9-custody-va-gang-related-disappearances-deaths/
4:27 pm, February 15, 2017
45°
Nine people have been arrested and charged in connection with the death of a 15-year-old Gaithersburg girl amid a string of teen disappearances and killings, according to police in Fairfax County.
A tenth suspect has yet to be apprehended. All the suspects — four adults and six juveniles — have been charged with abduction and gang participation. Police have not released their names.
Damaris Alexandra Reyes Rivas went missing from her home on Dec. 10. Fairfax County police said she was killed around Jan. 8 and her body found at an industrial park on Saturday.
In a statement, Fairfax County police said “the victim was held against her will, taken to Lake Accotink Park and assaulted before she was killed and left nearby in an industrial park, in the 7100 block of Wimsatt Road,” in Springfield.
Two other teen girls have disappeared since Reyes Rivas first went missing but have since returned home safely. Police said the web of disappearances are tied to the death of Reyes Rivas.
One of those missing teens included 17-year-old Venus Iraheta, who returned to her Alexandria home on Tuesday night after she had been missing for a month.
“People that were involved in some of the abductions or the missing persons may have some sort of involvement in the murder of Damaris (Reyes Rivas),” said Lt. Brian Gaydos spokesman for Fairfax County police. “Venus (Iraheta) is connected to this crime, yes … She is in custody. We are looking at the extent of her involvement.”
The Alexandria girl’s reunion with her mother was captured by NBC Washington TV cameras. The teen said she left home because she feared retribution after her ex-boyfriend Christian Alexander Sosa Rivas was killed and dumped in the Potomac River.
The remains of Sosa Rivas, 21, of Fairfax, were found Jan. 12, in Dumfries, Virginia.
Police would not identify the gangs involved, out of concern that naming them could serve to publicize them.
But Reyes Rivas’ mother told NBC Washington that the girl had been threatened by gang members of MS-13. Police have long acknowledged that MS-13 has tentacles that stretch around the D.C. area.
Fairfax County police describe the killings as isolated to one group and not involving multiple gangs.
“They all seem to be from the same group,” said Corporal Tawny Wright, spokeswoman for Fairfax County police.
Wright also said that abuse of women and girls is common among gang members in the area.
“They treat the girls horribly … emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse,” Wright said. “We need to minimize the level of gang activity in this county,” she said.