Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 28, 1995 TAG: 9506280030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
The body was discovered after authorities received a tip, said Mike Carey, a Virginia Beach police spokesman.
The body was discovered in a park in the far western end of Newport News, a location that is approximately 40 miles from the oceanfront area of Virginia Beach where Evans disappeared early June 19.
Carey said the body was found near a dirt lane in a heavily wooded area of the park.
Authorities also were believed to have a suspect in custody. WVEC television said the suspect was picked up in Richmond, but police would not immediately confirm that.
Carey said it was premature to describe anyone as a suspect, given the number of people who had been questioned in the case.
The search for Evans, who vanished after leaving a bar where she'd been talking with a Navy man, had left authorities baffled.
The Atlanta Journal reported Tuesday a cafe waitress saw Evans and a man come in together more than a half-hour after the man told police he left Evans at the bar. She said they appeared to be a couple on a date.
Meanwhile, Navy investigators said there was nothing to link the mysterious disappearance of Evans, a 21-year-old pre-medical student at Emory University in Atlanta, to its missing person case of Fatimah Jean Khan.
Khan, 20, a sailor assigned to the USS Merrimack, hasn't been seen since April 24, when she was sent on a security check from the oiler that was docked at a private Norfolk shipyard about 20 miles from the oceanfront area where Evans disappeared.
``I see absolutely no connection between the two,'' said Greg Golden, assistant special agent-in-charge of the Norfolk office of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
The NCIS, which issued a nationwide alert after Khan vanished, and the FBI worked with Virginia Beach police in the effort to determine if foul play was involved in Evans' disappearance.
Also, Evans' family hired Irvin B. Wells, the retired head of the Norfolk FBI office, to investigate the case.
According to police accounts, Evans and two women friends who were vacationing with her went to the Bayou, a popular lounge near the oceanfront, on the night of June 18.
Sometime after midnight, her friends left to get some coffee. But a man who had been talking with the women persuaded Evans to stay. When Evans' friends returned about an hour later to pick her up, she was gone.
Police issued an artist sketch of the man in the bar and eventually located him. He cooperated with investigators, Carey said. He told police the two went their separate ways as the bar was closing.
Evans' friends said the man told them he was a Navy SEAL, the sea service's exclusive commando organization. Carey declined to say whether the man has a military connection, but Golden said he is in the Navy and Wells said the man is a SEAL trainee.
Since the investigation began, the young woman's parents, Al and Delores Evans of Tucker, Ga., have remained in Virginia Beach, said Wells, who has acted as a spokesman for the family.
Friends and relatives distributed fliers showing Jennifer Evans' picture among oceanfront businesses. Delores Evans' utility employer, the Southern Co. of Atlanta, offered a $25,000 reward last week, and the Bayou and the Radisson hotel where the bar is located added a $1,000 reward Monday.
Keywords:
FATALITY
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.