D.C. Police Search Yields Evidence
Remains Could Belong to Woman Who Disappeared 11 Years Ago
By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 27, 2007; 5:26 PM
D.C. police searched the Fort Washington area for hours today looking for the remains of a woman who disappeared 11 years ago. They found evidence but refused to describe the nature of the evidence.
Shaquita Bell was 23 when she disappeared in June 1996. Police believe she was killed in the District, and her body may have been dropped off in Maryland.
Investigators discovered the evidence this morning near the 13200 block of Old Fort Road but said they need to conduct additional tests to determine what they had.Bell, a mother of three who worked at a Giant Food bakery, was last seen leaving her grandmother's house in Alexandria with her estranged live-in boyfriend, who is also the father of her youngest child.
The boyfriend was convicted of a drug violation in 1989 and is currently serving a 15-year prison term after being convicted of beating Bell a month before she disappeared.Police have been looking on and off for Bell's remains for 11 years, police said. Her disappearance is considered a "cold case."
Investigators searched the Fort Washington area yesterday under orders from Chief Cathy L. Lanier, who recently reviewed the case and decided police should continue excavating the area.Police had unsuccessfully searched the Fort Washington area in the past for Bell's remains...
LINK:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/tmo/flash.html
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Police Find Skeletal Remains During Search For Missing Woman
FORT WASHINGTON, Md. - D.C. police hope skeletal remains found Friday will help bring closure for the family of a woman missing for 11 years. Shaquita Bell was last seen at about 1 p.m. on June 27, 1996.
On Friday, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier organized a search along Old Fort Road near Route 210 to try to find Bell's body. Police said they believe that her body may be buried in the area. Cadaver dogs were also brought in to aid in the search, police said, and located an area of interest. Police initiated the search after getting new information that they would not disclose. A spotter found the bones Friday morning. They were taken for testing.
Lanier said authorities have searched the area before, but now have extended the search area. Police said they believe Bell's body is in the Fort Washington area. They said they will continue their search if necessary.
Police said Bell left her grandmother's house on East Raymond Avenue in Alexandria with her estranged boyfriend and father of her youngest child, Michael Dickerson, just before she disappeared. Relatives said they were perplexed by Bell's decision to leave with him.
A month earlier, Bell called police to report that the estranged boyfriend had beaten her during a squabble in the Laurel apartment that they shared. He was arrested, and Bell moved back in with her grandmother in Alexandria.
Three weeks after that incident, police said, Bell called police to say that he had held a gun to her head during a fight. He was arrested in Washington and charged with possession of a machine gun the same day. On the day of Bell's disappearance, the estranged boyfriend had driven Bell to take two of her three children to a doctor's appointment. Family members said she called at 2 p.m. and said she was on the way home, and that was the last time anybody heard from her.
The boyfriend told the family that they had gone into southeast Washington, where they got into an argument and she left him. Police said Bell had provided information in at least two investigations -- one of them a homicide.
According to her mother, Bell was afraid for her life. "It's been very hard, especially on the holidays and her birthday and things like that," said the victim's mother, Jackie Winborne. "Sometimes, the least little thing that someone might say I may start crying because I miss her that much, and sometimes it doesn't even seem real. You always hope and pray that it's a dream because it's your child."
Police said they hope that advancements in technology and crime-solving methods will help get them a lead in this case. Police said Bell worked at a Giant Food bakery and did not have a criminal record. Her estranged live-in boyfriend, who police said was the last person known to have seen her alive, was convicted of a drug violation in 1989. He is currently serving a 15-year prison term after being convicted of beating Bell a month before she disappeared.
Alexandria police are also investigating a missing person report in this case. ...
Source:
Police Find Skeletal Remains During Search For Missing Woman - News - MSNBC.com
LINK:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20000641/
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Dead End In Decade-Long Search for Missing Woman Fort Washington, Md. - UPDATED - Saturday July 28, 2007 5:22 pm
Area police hoping for a break in the case of a missing woman who vanished without a trace 11 years ago were met with a dead end Saturday.
D.C. and Prince George's County investigators were searching an area of Fort Washington Friday for the body of Shaquita Bell, a D.C. mother of three who was last seen June 27, 1996 after discovering bones in a wooded area near a new housing development.
The bones were later revealed to be from an animal.
Bell disappeared while in the company of her estranged boyfriend, Michael Dickerson.
Bell's family blames Dickerson for her disappearance and presumed death. He was never charged in the case, but is serving time in North Carolina for a previous assault and battery charge related to Bell.
Police have previously searched in Fort Washington, after one of Dickerson's friends reportedly confessed to helping him bury her body.
Bell's family has led frequent campaigns to raise awareness of her disappearance and focus police attention on the case. ...
Source:
ABC 7 News - Dead End In Decade-Long Search for Missing Woman
LINK:
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0707/442865.html