Police: Body Found in Lake Ridge is Missing Woman

Images: Shutterstock; Lizeth Yadira Lopez (PWCPD)

LAKE RIDGE, VA — The Prince William County police announced Friday that they found a body, believed to be that of a missing Alexandria woman, near a drainage ditch in Lake Ridge.

The body is "presumed to be Lizeth Yadira Lopez, 36, who was reported as missing and endangered on April 19," the police said.

The remains were taken to the local medical examiner’s office for an autopsy, the police said, and the death is being investigated as a homicide.

The body was discovered Friday morning, and officers responded at 10:56 a.m. to the scene, in the vicinity of Cotton Mill Drive and Griffith Avenue, the police said. The site is near Lake Ridge Community Park, north of Old Bridge Road.

Radio station WTOP reported that the police did not release information about why they consider the case to be a homicide. WTOP said the remains were found in a secluded area near a townhouse community,

The discovery of the body came after an extensive search for Lopez on April 22 in Lake Ridge by the Prince William police, the Fairfax County police and Fairfax fire and rescue personnel, as well as the Virginia State Police.

The Prince William police on Wednesday released a surveillance video of Lopez entering a CVS pharmacy in The Glen shopping center in Lake Ridge on the night of April 17. The last known contact with her was one hour later.

Her family reported Lopez missing on April 19, and Prince William police found her car the next day on Pond Run Drive in Lake Ridge, several blocks away from the CVS store. The intensive police search of the area around Pond Run Drive on April 22 turned up nothing.

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call Prince William County Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS.