Victim Had Gang Ties in Washington, D.C.
By URIAH KISER
STAFFORD, Va. — The remains of a missing Washington, D.C. woman, 33-year-old Katherine Bryant, were found along Interstate 95 in Stafford late last summer.
It’s a case that still has detectives curious as to how she got there, and it has them asking for help from anyone who might known what the victim’s final days and hours were like.
“This is not a cold case for us because we just began working it in August, but overall it is a cold case,” said Stafford County sheriff’s Capt. William F. Bowler.
Bowler is heading this homicide investigation. The victim was reported missing in 2006 and was found in a heavily wooded area just off the exit ramp at mile post 140 on August 16, 2012 by a truck driver who stopped to relieve himself.
Investigators won’t release the cause of the death, nor would they say if Bryant was dead prior to her body being dumped in the woods. By the time the remains were found, they had decomposed so badly there was just enough for the state medical examiner’s office to make a positive identification.
Bryant’s family has been cooperative during the investigation and has been able to provide some information on their adult daughter’s whereabouts prior to her going missing six years ago. But it’s Bryant’s involvement with a notorious drug gang Murder Inc. that has investigators even more intrigued.
“We think she had some loose connections to the gang. We’re not sure how involved she was or if she was dating a gang member, but we’re looking into that,” said Bowler.
Detectives don’t believe the woman had any ties to Stafford County, but they are curious about what friendships and associations the woman had leading up to her death. And they want to know who and why someone drove Bryant to an area in semi-rural Virginia and left her body in the woods.
Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to call Stafford County Crime Solvers where a $1,000 reward has been offered for information in the case.
