On Feb. 8, 2003, firefighters responded to a fire at the In Style Consignment Shop in Rockville and ended up stumbling on a murder that remains a mystery today.
Montgomery County firefighters fought their way through the smoke and flames, and found the body of 39-year-old shop owner Vanessa Johnson Sosin. Police said the fire was set on purpose to cover up a deadly stabbing.
More than seven years later, Montgomery County police still haven’t found Sosin’s killer.
Detectives discount robbery as a motive because nothing was taken from store shelves and cash remained in the register. One item was taken from the shop: a full-length mink coat that had been given to her by her husband. Police said they know she wore the coat to work that day.
A woman and her daughter told police that a heavy-set woman came into the store that day, and Johnson Sosin greeted the woman as if she had known her.
They heard Sosin say to the woman, “Oh, hi, what do you have for me today?”
Twenty minutes later, a mailman saw the same woman run from shop and smoke come from the building. He called 911.
Police said the woman ran around behind another building where they found a bag of clothes in a trash can. The clothing, which belonged to a man and a woman, contained traces of gasoline.
Police described the woman seen leaving the shop that afternoon as a black female, 30 to 40 years of age, large build, wearing a black, puffy, perhaps down-filled, coat with a hemline above the knee, and a black pill-box-style hat with ear flaps.
Montgomery County fire investigators said the person who set the fire was an amateur. They found a gas can, rubber gloves, and plastic bottles filled with gasoline and oil used for a small engine.
Anyone with information regarding this case can call Montgomery County police at 866-411-TIPS (8477).
