Updated at 5:40 p.m. — A man identified as a person of interest in Cara Abbruscato’s death was arrested in New Jersey today and has been charged with second-degree murder, Fairfax County police announced shortly after noon.
Earlier: Foul play is suspected in the death of a woman whose body was found at the Burke Lake Park campgrounds on Saturday (Sept. 30).
Detectives with the Fairfax County Police Department’s Major Crimes Bureau are investigating the case as a homicide after the Chief Medical Examiner’s office detected “evidence of trauma to the upper body,” the FCPD said in a news release yesterday (Sunday).
According to police, officers were dispatched to the park at 7315 Ox Road in Fairfax Station around 3:09 p.m. on Saturday in response to a 911 call.
The dispatcher told responding officers that, based on the call, a person’s leg and foot were seen sticking out of a tent surrounded by flies, according to scanner traffic on Open MHz. Park staff who called to the person got no response.
“Upon arrival, officers discovered Cara Abbruscato, a 40-year-old resident of Fairfax, inside a tent,” the FCPD said. “Fairfax County Fire and Rescue personnel pronounced her deceased on the scene.”
The exact cause and manner of death will be determined by an autopsy.
Police are asking the public for assistance in locating a man named Rami El Sayed who has been identified as a “person of interest.”
“Additionally, we are asking the community to come forward if they were at Burke Lake Park campground and noticed a makeshift tent…between September 19th and September 30th,” the FCPD said.
The FCPD’s Major Crimes Bureau can be contacted at 703-246-7800, option 2. The department also accepts anonymous tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Solvers by phone (1-866-411-TIPS) and online.
Photo via Google Maps
