THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508090400
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
When 17-year-old Amber Marie Zajac didn't return from a friend's house, her father and his girlfriend went looking for her.
In Tuesday's pre-dawn hours, they searched a well-beaten, thicket-shrouded dirt path winding behind their Redwing neighborhood. The meandering trail is a popular shortcut for neighborhood teens traveling to convenience stores or friends' homes.
Just after 4 a.m., a few feet off the path, the girlfriend found the missing Ocean Lakes High School student.
Amber had been slain.
On Tuesday afternoon, police launched a wide-scale search for evidence along the winding maze of trails that branch from the Redwing neighborhood into a thickly wooded area that separates the neighborhood from Derby Run Trailer Park. Several detectives and police supervisors guided 33 police recruits along the paths and through a muddy stream bed.
The recruits collected several pieces of possible evidence, including clothing and a gold chain. It was not immediately known whether any of the collected items related to the homicide.
Detectives released little information Tuesday. Police spokesman Lou Thurston declined to speculate on a motive or a cause of death. He would not say whether Amber had been sexually assaulted.
A police source who asked not to be named said it appeared Amber was strangled.
According to Thurston, Amber, of the 1500 block of Hummingbird Lane, left her friend's house in the nearby Harper Square military housing area around midnight.
She didn't make it home.
About 2:30 a.m., Amber's father woke and became concerned because his daughter hadn't returned. He and his girlfriend began searching.
After Amber's body was found, her father called police from a pay phone, Thurston said. Rescue workers found Amber unconscious. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Residents of the Derby Run and Redwing neighborhoods said the woods that separate them are frequent hangouts for the area's teenagers. They said teens congregate in the woods nightly during the summer.
Detectives searching for evidence Tuesday talked with several teens who gathered in the woods near the site of Amber's slaying. The investigators warned them to stay out of the woods at night.
Detectives said there are no suspects in Amber's death. They are looking for anyone who saw Amber late Monday or early Tuesday.
Police said that when Amber left the Harper Square area she was wearing a gray plaid shirt, white pants, black tennis shoes and a white hat. She was carrying a black purse.
Anyone with information about her is asked to call Virginia Beach Crime Solvers at 427-0000. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON, Staff
Virginia Beach police cadets search the wooded area near Booth Hill
Shopping Center, off Chickadee Lane, where the body of Amber Marie
Zajac was found Tuesday.
Color photo
Amber Marie Zajac
Color map
Detectives, supervisors and police recruits searched for evidence.
KEYWORDS: DEATH by CNB