Nine days after a car struck a tree and eight days after a Forestville woman was reported missing, authorities found her body yards away from the crash site.
U.S. Park Police are trying to determine how authorities missed the connection that left the body of the woman, 50-year-old Jean Kearny, alongside the road for more than a week.
National Park Service employees happened across Kearny’s body around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, police said. She was concealed by the brushy wood line along Suitland Parkway, not far from her home and about 40 feet from an Oct. 7 car crash site in which police found no driver or passengers, said spokesman Sgt. Robert LaChance.
Investigators believe Kearny was ejected in the crash and her body was lost in the brush.
“When the body was discovered, that’s when the connection was made to the crash,” LaChance said.
On Oct. 7, a U.S. Park Police patrolman found the Mazda 6 crashed against a tree, off the eastbound lanes of Suitland Parkway, west of Suitland Road, LaChance said.
The patrol officer searched the area for victims and ran the vehicle’s plates, LaChance said. The car had not been reported missing or stolen, he said. The officer documented the crash, then had the sedan towed.
The next day, Kearny was reported missing out of the District of Columbia, LaChance said.
The spokesman did not know whether there was a follow-up search of the crash and why the missing person report wasn’t linked to the wreck.
“We’re going to look to see if we do everything that we could at the time,” he said.
The incident is being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Branch. Anyone with information can call detectives at 202-610-8737.
