Help the FBI Catch a Killer

Unknown Offender Linked by DNA in Two Separate Cases

On a Saturday night in October 2009, college student Morgan Harrington left a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and disappeared. It would be several months before her body was discovered in a field about 10 miles away.

We need your help to find Harrington’s killer. The individual we are seeking has also been linked by DNA to a sexual assault in Fairfax City, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Today, the Virginia State Police, Fairfax City Police, and the FBI released two enhanced sketches of the suspect and are reminding the public there is a reward of up to $150,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the Harrington case.

The multimedia campaign being launched today to draw attention to the investigation will include information on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, a public service announcement by Metallica, and electronic billboards in Virginia and along the East Coast.

“Bringing renewed attention to the case will get people thinking about it again,” said Virginia State Police Special Agent Dino Cappuzzo. “Our hope is that someone will come forward and provide a crucial piece of information that will help us solve the murder.”

Harrington was a 20-year-old student at Virginia Tech when she went to the concert that Saturday, October 17, at the John Paul Jones Arena on the University of Virginia campus. At about 8:30 p.m., she left the building and was unable to get back inside. She was last seen hitchhiking nearby.

Her remains were discovered the following January in a remote field on a farm in Albemarle County, Virginia. A camera she had that night and a distinctive Swarovski crystal necklace she was wearing have not been recovered.

FBI agents in our Charlottesville Resident Agency have been assisting state investigators, and profilers from our Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) have also provided consultation.

“A lot of BAU’s work focused on the location of the body and what that told us about the offender,” Cappuzzo said. “We believe he was intimately familiar with the farm and the surrounding area where the body was recovered. He may have been comfortable there and felt he was not at risk of getting caught.”

DNA recovered in the Harrington case was linked to an unknown offender in a September 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax City. A 26-year-old woman was attacked at night while walking home from a grocery store. The offender was scared away by a passerby—but the victim got a good look at him, enabling a Fairfax City Police artist to produce a sketch of the attacker.

“It was a remarkable break to get the DNA match,” said FBI Special Agent Jane Collins. The forensic evidence linked the two cases, so now we have a face to put with the suspect in the Harrington case. The suspect is described as an African-American male with black hair and facial hair (at the time of the 2005 attack). He is approximately 6 feet tall and was believed to be between the ages of 25 and 35 years old at the time of the Fairfax City assault.

Help us catch Morgan Harrington’s killer. If you have any information about the Harrington case or the Fairfax City assault, contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Virginia State Police Tip line at 434-352-3467, or submit a tip online.

A Familiar Face?

We are asking the public to review the sketches and other information in the Morgan Harrington and Fairfax City cases and consider whether they know someone who fits this description or who lived or had ties to the areas around the times of the assaults.

People who know the suspect may not believe he is capable of committing such crimes. He may not have a violent criminal history. Because investigators have DNA evidence that can positively link the suspect to his crimes—or exclude innocent parties—the public should not hesitate to provide information.

The Jefferson Area Crime Stoppers is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Morgan’s murder. The band Metallica has added an additional $50,000 to that amount.

Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud

NORFOLK, VA—Christopher G. DeBlauw, 44, of Millersville, Maryland, pleaded guilty today in Norfolk federal court to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. DeBlauw faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison when he is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Chief Judge Rebecca Beach Smith on August 28, 2012.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after DeBlauw’s plea was accepted by United States Magistrate Judge F. Bradford Stillman.

According to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, DeBlauw conspired with several individuals to purchase real estate on the Eastern Shore, in Cape Charles, Virginia, by submitting fraudulent loan applications and falsifying HUD-1 Settlement Statements and thereby defrauding various financial institutions including BB&T, Lehman Brothers, and Acacia Federal Savings Bank. DeBlauw’s role was to provide the down payments to the straw buyers of the properties that his company was selling. DeBlauw wired these funds to the co-conspirator straw purchasers, who would then falsely state on the HUD-1 that the down payment was from their own funds when in fact it was provided by DeBlauw. From September 2005 through September 2008, DeBlauw provided the down payment on at least six properties. All of these properties went into foreclosure and losses exceeded 1.8 million dollars.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service, and the Virginia State Police. Assistant United States Attorneys Robert J. Seidel, Jr. and Joseph L. Kosky are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

The investigation has been coordinated by the Virginia Financial and Securities Fraud Task Force, an unprecedented partnership between criminal investigators and civil regulators to investigate and prosecute complex financial fraud cases in the nation and in Virginia. The task force is an investigative arm of the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, an interagency national task force.

President Obama established the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch and, with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.

Arkansas Cell Leader of Sophisticated, Violent Fraudulent Document Ring Sentenced

RICHMOND, VA—Diego Cortez-Angel, 28, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for his role in a racketeering conspiracy. Further, the defendant is illegally within the United States and will be deported following the service of his prison sentence. Cortez-Angel was the leader of an Arkansas cell of a highly sophisticated and violent fraudulent document trafficking organization based in Mexico, with cells in 19 cities within the United States and 11 states, including three cells in Virginia.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and John P. Torres, Special Agent in Charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations, made the announcement after sentencing by Chief United States District Judge James R. Spencer.

According to the indictment, Israel Cruz Millan, a/k/a “El Muerto,” 28, of Raleigh, N.C., managed the organization’s operations in the United States, overseeing 19 cells in 11 states, including three in Virginia, that produced high-quality false identification cards distributed to illegal aliens. In each city where the organization operated, Millan placed a cell manager to supervise a number of “runners,” the lower level members of the organization who distributed business cards advertising the organization’s services and helped facilitate transactions with customers. The cost of fraudulent documents varied depending on the location, with counterfeit Resident Alien and Social Security cards typically selling from $150 to $200. Each cell allegedly maintained detailed sales records and divided the proceeds between the runner, the cell manager, and the upper level managers in Mexico. The indictment states that from January 2008 through November 2010, members of the organization wired more than $1 million to Mexico.

The indictment alleges that members of the organization sought to drive competitors from their territory by posing as customers in search of fraudulent documents and then attacking the competitors when they arrived to make a sale. These attacks allegedly included binding the victims’ hands, feet and mouth; repeatedly beating them; and threatening them with death if they continued to sell false identification documents in the area. It is charged that the victims were left bound at the scene of the attack, and the indictment states that at least one victim died from the beatings.

Cruz Millan is accused of tightly controlling the organization’s activities by keeping in regular contact with cell managers about fraudulent document inventory, bi-weekly sales reports and the presence of any rival document vendors. The indictment alleges that members of the organization who violated internal rules imposed by Millan were subject to discipline, including shaving eyebrows, wearing weights, beatings, and other violent acts.

In entering a guilty plea to the racketeering conspiracy charge, Diego Cortez-Angel admitted being the supervisor of a cell located in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Twenty-seven members of the organization were originally arrested on Nov. 18, 2010. To date, 22 of those arrested have pled guilty in this case. Five defendants remain pending for trial, which has been scheduled for Oct. 17, 2011.

The investigation was led by the Norfolk office of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which falls under the Washington, D.C., office. ICE HSI received assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Virginia Police, and Chesterfield County Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Gill and Angela Mastandrea-Miller and Trial Attorney Addison Thompson, of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

Criminal indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.

Minnesota Man Indicted for Kidnapping His Estranged Wife

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MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court, a 40-year-old man from Virginia, Minnesota, was indicted for kidnapping and assaulting his estranged wife. The indictment charges Timothy Glen Caskey with one count of kidnapping and one count of interstate domestic violence. The indictment alleges that on July 14, 2011, Caskey kidnapped his wife and took her from Minnesota to Texas and also briefly into Mexico. The indictment further alleges that on July 14, Caskey assaulted his wife, causing her serious bodily injury.

According to a law enforcement affidavit filed in the case, on July 14, 2011, Timothy Caskey forcibly abducted his wife off the street in Virginia, Minnesota. Reportedly, she was walking with a friend and others when Caskey approached in a pickup truck. He allegedly jumped out of the truck, grabbed the woman, and struck two people who tried to assist her. He then shoved her into the truck and fled.

Earlier that morning, Caskey had been released from the Northeast Regional Correctional Center after serving a sentence for violating a restraining order filed by his wife. An active restraining order prohibiting Caskey from having any contact with her remained in place. Several attempts by Caskey to contact his wife by phone after his release from jail were reported to authorities by his wife prior to her abduction.

Two days after the alleged abduction, on July 16, 2011, a man and a woman matching the Caskeys’ descriptions stopped at an auto dealership in New Braunfels, Texas. The man asked to test drive a white pickup truck. He provided the auto dealer with a Minnesota driver’s license in the name of Timothy Caskey. Both the man and the woman then got into the truck, left the lot, never to return. The truck they left behind was registered to Timothy Caskey.

If convicted, Timothy Caskey faces a potential maximum penalty of life in prison on both charges. All sentences will be determined by a federal district court judge. This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Virginia Police Department, and the New Braunfels Police Department in Texas. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michelle E. Jones.

An indictment is a determination by a grand jury that there is probable cause to believe that offenses have been committed by a defendant. A defendant, of course, is presumed innocent until he or she pleads guilty or is proven guilty at trial.

Newport News Man Sentenced for Aiding and Abetting Gang Members

NEWPORT NEWS, VA—Kevin Vaughn, 24, of Newport News, Va., was sentenced today to 240 months in prison for aiding and abetting an assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of a racketeering conspiracy, and aiding and abetting the discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith. Kevin Vaughn pled guilty on Oct. 19, 2010.

According to a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Vaughn was an associate of the “Dump Squad” street gang, a criminal organization that operated primarily in the

Ridley Circle

, Harbor Homes and

Dickerson Court

areas of Newport News. Members engaged in drug distribution and violence including murder, attempted murder and robbery. They often carried firearms to intimidate others and protect themselves from rival gangs. On April 26, 2006, in the area of

18th Street

and

Roanoke Avenue

, Vaughn was driving a vehicle occupied by three members of the “Dump Squad,” when they passed a rival gang member walking on the street. He turned the car around and the passengers began firing at the individual as he attempted to flee. The victim was later treated at a local hospital for a gunshot wound to the head.

This case was investigated by the FBI, Newport News Police Department, the Hampton Police Department, and Virginia State Police. Assistant United States Attorneys Laura Tayman and Robert Bradenham II prosecuted this case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov.