One woman dead; one missing; few answers in Va. county

John Bacon | USA TODAY

The recent fatal shooting of one young woman and disappearance of another have authorities in a rural but fast-growing Virginia county confronting tragedy and scrambling for answers.

Officials in Spotsylvania County, about 60 miles outside Washington, D.C., have neither linked nor solved the cases of Heather Ciccone, 21, and Katelin Michelle Akens, 19.

Akens' family says a relative dropped her off Saturday near a commuter rail station, bound for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and, ultimately, school in Arizona. Sheriff's office Capt. Jeff Pearce told The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, a city of 28,000 people that borders the county, that Akens never made it to Arizona.

“Nobody’s heard from her or seen her since” Saturday, Pearce told the newspaper.

On Sunday, Sheriff Roger Harris said his office received a call from a person who reported an unknown vehicle parked in his driveway. Deputies responding to the call found the body of Heather Ciccone, 21, who had suffered "severe trauma to the upper body," Harris said.

The sheriff's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY. The Free Lance-Star, citing information on a search warrant, said Ciccone had been shot in the head.

On Monday, authorities found luggage belonging to Akens strewn in a drainage just outside Fredericksburg. The search for Akens continues. Her mother told WTVR-TV in Richmond that her daughter never got on her flight.

"She and I text all day, and if she doesn't hear from me, she'll blow up my phone if I don't answer her," Lisa Sullivan said. She said her daughter was excited to begin attending cosmetology school in Arizona.

On Tuesday, Courtney Ciccone posted a plea on Facebook seeking help in finding her sister's killer.

"Our precious Heather was taken to heaven way to to early!" the post says. "Someone stole her from us, and she can't ever come back. We love you and miss you so much already!!!"

The post calls the killing a "selfish, unthinkable act of hate!" adding that "Someone murdered her in cold blood and left her to die alone! Words can't even describe what they are putting our family through... We love you Boo Boo."

On its website, the county of more than 120,000 people claims to "contain a mix of beautiful rural landscape alongside an energetic, growing community." The description adds that Spotsylvania is "one of Virginia's fastest-growing counties, largely because of its desirable location along Interstate 95, midway between metropolitan Washington and Richmond."

Contributing: WUSA-TV, Washington