Eighteen-year-old Lisa A. Rinker’s body was found by in a swampy area of Merrifield about eight days after she vanished. Twenty-five years later, her death remains unsolved.
Fairfax County police said in court documents filed more than two decades ago that Rinker was “dragged to the final resting place,” and that she probably “died due to foul play and that the body was hidden to conceal homicide.”
Rinker, who lived with her mom was last seen about 11 p.m. Aug. 12, 1984, when she left home to walk about a half-mile to her father’s house on Hartland Road. Police said Rinker was wearing a dark jacket, light blue tube top and bluejeans. The next day, her family reported her missing.
Rinker’s family members and friends searched the area.
A friend found a pair of pink flip-flops that she was wearing when she left her mother’s home. County police, aided by tracking dogs and helicopters, searched the area. The next day, her body was found about 100 yards away from where her shoes were found, along Lee Highway, blocks from her father’s house.
The body was found in 6-foot-high underbrush on a Virginia Electric & Power Co. high-voltage power line right-of-way.
The man who found the sandals was initially the focus of the police investigation. In court documents police say he was “involved in the death of” Rinker. He was seen with her at a local convenience store, police say, the day after she disappeared.
Court records said he took a polygraph test which “showed deception on all pertinent questions.” But police have not charged him or anyone else in the case.
