FAIRFAX, Va. 鈥� Police were back on a popular wooded trail Friday morning, looking for clues and asking for the public’s help in the same area where a 21-year-old woman was stabbed in the neck Thursday morning.
That attack happened around 7:30 a.m., not too far from where the trail opens up to Vaden Drive in Fairfax County, Virginia. The victim was walking to the nearby Vienna Metro station when she was jumped from behind.
鈥淲e have no reason to believe at this point that the victim and suspect knew each other,鈥� said Fairfax County police spokesman Don Gotthardt. 鈥淢y detectives tell me that it was random, and that makes it that much more disconcerting.鈥�
That’s why police were handing out flyers to everyone who was biking or walking past, whether it was seniors out for a morning walk or a mother pushing a stroller.
鈥淚t鈥檚 disturbing, it doesn鈥檛 happen here on a frequent basis,鈥� said Gotthardt.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking for information. Anybody who might have witnessed the incident. Anybody who might have seen anything suspicious, anyone suspicious. Think back a couple days before the attack as well. Anything suspicious. If you frequent the path or Vaden Drive we want to hear from you if you鈥檝e got any information at all.鈥�
Police concede the description on their flyer is vague. There鈥檚 no sketch depicting the suspect鈥檚 face.
鈥淭he only description we have is a male, somewhere around 5-foot-7 inches tall,鈥� said Gotthardt. 鈥淢edium to dark complexion 鈥� and again, he was wearing a dark shirt with a hood, and part of that was covering his head or his face, and that鈥檚 the reason for the limited description.鈥�
The victim was stabbed in the neck but she was still able to walk a few hundred yards up a hill to flag down another passerby closer to Vaden Drive. That person then called police.
Despite being stabbed in the neck, the victim is expected to make a full recovery.
Paul Yeagle鈥檚 condo looks out over the trail, and he says he takes advantage of that proximity on a regular basis. Before hearing about the attack, he says he 鈥渘ever had a second thought about it.鈥�
As he walked past alone again today, he did concede, 鈥淚鈥檒l be a little more careful this morning. Probably get a little bit of pepper spray in the future.”
鈥淥ccasionally you hear stuff like this happen,鈥� Yeagle added. 鈥淲e鈥檙e near a big city. Sometimes things get nasty.鈥�
