A body was found in the woods near the intersection of Coffer Woods Road and Burke Lake Road on Friday, May 3, which was later identified as Washington, D.C., resident Amaraegbulam Ahaghotu, according to Fairfax County police sources. Ahaghotu, 26, of the 700 block of Rittenhouse Street Northwest, died from blunt force trauma to the upper body, an autopsy revealed.
Ahaghotu was last seen on Monday, April 29, and was reported missing by family members to The Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., that same day, according to police. Ahaghotu's car, a 2002 silver Nissan Maxima with Maryland registration HRS-343 was missing but was found in the 2900 block of Fairlawn Avenue in southeast Washington, D.C., at approximately 4 p.m., Saturday, May 4.
The site where the body was found on Friday afternoon is a wooded area close to the intersection of Burke Lake Road and Coffer Woods Road. According to residents in the area, the road was blocked by police activity for an undetermined amount of time after 4:40 that afternoon.
Cassie Sinichko, a resident for 15 years, lives near the woods where the body was found. She saw the police activity on Coffer Woods Road on the afternoon of Friday, May 3.
"It's concerning. Our house backs up to the woods where they found him," she said.
Ingrid Bautista walks by the location every day on her way to her job at Burke Nursery.
"This area doesn't have problems a lot, but if you find a body, it’s ‘Wow, what's going on here?'" she said.
A resident of the Towns of Burke, a townhouse community a block away from the woods, still feels secure in that neighborhood. She preferred not to give her name.
"Who knows if it happened there or they dumped it [body] there? I think this neighborhood is as safe as any," she said.
Stacy Heller, 17, recently moved to Cardinal Glen, a community near the wooded area, and she jogs on Coffer Woods Road frequently. She previously lived in West Springfield.
"I saw a whole bunch of police cars, and there were a few spectators. It's kind of scary," she said.