A body found in a cardboard box along Interstate 70 is that of a District man who was shot to death, police said Thursday, and a Prince George’s County man is wanted in the slaying. The Metropolitan Police Department identified the victim as 36-year-old Jacobo Vazquez of the 1100 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW.
The box that contained his remains were found at about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday by state highway maintenance workers in Frederick County, near Braddock Mountain, Maryland State Police said.
The case began Nov. 12, when D.C. police were called to the 100 block of Constitution Avenue NW to investigate a report of a missing person, police said.
D.C. homicide detectives responded to the scene where the box was found Tuesday, hidden on a wooded embankment along the westbound lanes of I-70, and identified the body as the missing person from Constitution Avenue. That person was determined to be Vazquez, police said.
An autopsy conducted by the state’s chief medical examiner in Baltimore, who ruled that the cause of death was homicide and the manner of death was gunshot wounds.
Police said Vazquez was shot to death in a building on the 100 block of Constitution Avenue, which is across the street from the U.S. Capitol grounds and about a mile and a half from his home.
A felony arrest warrant has been issued for 34-year-old Marvin Palencia of Hyattsville. Authorities are also trying to find Palencia’s light green or gray 2007 Honda Odyssey, which has a Maryland license plate that reads PALNCIA.
Maryland State Police and D.C. officials would not say how Palencia was linked to the death. State police spokeswoman Elena Russo said there was a “comparison of evidence,” but declined to describe the evidence.
In cases where police need to determine the identity of a body, “we look beyond our own cold cases and missing persons and work with other jurisdictions,” she said.
D.C. police also would not describe the circumstances of Vazquez’s disappearance, only saying in a statement that responding officers “alerted detectives due to the suspicious nature of the disappearance.”
Anyone with information about the case, or who has seen Palencia, is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or 888-919-CRIME (2746).
Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can call D.C. Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS or send a text message to 50411.
