The search for a missing teen in Virginia has ended tragically: Investigators found Jholie Moussa’s body in a park in Fairfax County Friday morning.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Fairfax County Police announced via Twitter on Friday that they had found the body of a juvenile in Woodlawn Neighborhood Park, mostly covered in leaves. Late Friday night, NBC News reported that a medical examination found a positive identification for 16-year-old Jholie.
The teen, who lived with her mother and twin sister, was last seen two weeks ago Friday, after telling her sister she was going to a party in Norfolk, Virginia, nearly 200 miles from her home.
Her sister, Zhane Moussa, reportedly told the news station that Jholie had been behaving unusually just before her disappearance.
“She was doing my hair and then she stopped, for a good minute, to text some more. Then, out of nowhere, she was like, ‘I gotta go, I gotta go!'” Zhane Moussa said.
After she left abruptly, Jholie told her sister in a text that she was going to a party in Norfolk. Her mother got a missed call from her later that night, but we never able to connect with her.
“Normally, she would have responded back to me. If she calls me and I don’t answer, she always follows it up with a text,” Syreeta Steward said.
Last week, Steward posted a video on Facebook begging her daughter to come home, and begging anyone who had information to please come forward, without any risk of getting into trouble. In the video, Steward was insisted her daughter would not have run away and seemed frustrated that authorities were treating her disappearance as voluntary.
“Based on the facts of the case, there is nothing that indicates that Moussa is in any danger,” county police said in an earlier statement obtained by NBC News. She was listed in the National Crime Information Center database as a runaway juvenile.
Last week, the FBI joined the missing persons investigation.
Police are now treating her death as a homicide. Authorities have not yet revealed the cause of death, pending an investigation.
This is a developing story. CrimeOnline will provide updates as more information becomes available.
[Feature photo: Police handout/Jholie Moussa]
