ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608290065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: STAFFORD
SOURCE: Associated Press
The body of a woman who disappeared from Stafford County 14 years ago was found at the bottom of a well in nearby Orange County, police said Wednesday.
Stafford County Sheriff R.M. Williams said an autopsy confirmed the suspicions of Ava Marie DeHart's family that a skeleton found Saturday is that of the missing woman.
``Fourteen years is a long time ... [but] the right piece of information didn't come to light until this past weekend,'' Williams said.
A private investigator hired by DeHart's family led police to the well. Neither the investigator nor police would detail how the investigator learned a body might be there.
``It's a very sad time for us, obviously, but we waited for this for 14 years. We are very anxious to put her to rest,'' Debbie DeHart said.
With the discovery, police turned what had been an unsolved missing person case into a homicide investigation.
Police have long had a theory about how Ava DeHart died, but have made no arrests.
DeHart's live-in boyfriend was questioned about her disappearance, but Williams said investigators found ``nothing at that time to put him as a suspect.''
Debbie DeHart said police did not search strenuously for her sister in 1982 and indicated the younger woman might have run away.
Debbie DeHart said she never believed that and assumed from the start that her sister met with foul play. Debbie DeHart said she believes she knows who killed her sister, but police have asked her to keep quiet.
``It's not over for us, because now we want to see a rapid arrest and prosecution and see the person who did this punished,'' Debbie DeHart said.
The bones rested under about two feet of dirt and debris at the bottom of an old, abandoned well, State Police investigator Garrett Paxton said.
``The body had been in the well a long time,'' Paxton said. The body was identified using dental records, he said.
The state medical examiner will continue examining the bones to try to determine the cause of death, authorities said.
DeHart was 26 when she vanished July 20, 1982. She told a friend she planned to walk from her job in Falmouth to her mother's house close by.
The discovery this year of the body of an unknown female in Frederick, Md., spurred Debbie DeHart to open her own investigation. Dental records eventually showed that body was not her sister.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB