Zabullah Alam drove to Union Station for an interview with a company offering an $11 an hour landscaper job in June 1998. He was never heard from again.
Alam’s 1985 BMW was nowhere to be found at the District’s train station when police and his close friend, Babor Bakhtary, searched for it after Alam went missing.
“I wish we knew what happened, but nobody knows,” Bakhtary told the Washington Examiner. “It was an unfortunate thing that happened, and I still think about it.”
Bakhtary and the 22-year-old Alam became close friends when they worked together at Fish Market restaurant in Old Town Alexandria. That was, of course, until Alam responded to the offer for what to him was a lucrative opportunity. But police believe the employment offer, which required no experience and provided paid vacation time, was a ruse meant to lure Alam. The employer instructed him to go to Union Station where he would be met by a company representative who would take him to the interview.
Authorities’ eventually connected Alam’s disappearance to a burglary attempt at his Alexandria apartment in early April 1998. Alam startled the burglar when he returned to his apartment on the 6700 block of Tower Drive. The burglar dropped a purse belonging to Alam’s aunt and jumped off a balcony to get away, according to media reports at the time.
Alam was able to identify the suspect, and Christopher Andaryl Wills was arrested on breaking and entering charges on June 15. Alam drove to the train station on June 25. In 2001, Wills was convicted of abducting Alam, but the young man has never been found and authorities still consider him a missing person.
Anyone with information should call the Fairfax County Police Department at 703-385-7924.
