Two women told Fairfax County Police they were lured to a Burke home by the promise of a job but were drugged and sexually assaulted instead.
The women, who moved to the area from Mongolia to study, were looking for work at Ballston Common Mall in Arlington March 8 when another Mongolian woman approached them, according to a search warrant. She told them she owned a housecleaning business and had a home that needed cleaning.
A man who works at the mall drove them to his Burke home. The women said they were offered a glass of wine. They said they were required by cultural customs to accept and finish it.
Both said they soon blacked out and remember very little else. One of the women said the next morning as they prepared to leave, another resident of the house asked the woman who'd lured them there, "Is that the girl that was screaming last night? What happened to her eye? Did someone hit her?" The alleged victim said the woman responded, "Shhh, they don't know what happened. Just get out of here."
Police wrote in the affidavit that one of the alleged victims later told her friend she'd been warned there was a couple preying on young Mongolian girls in the Arlington area. She said she was told the couple lured girls into situations that result in sexual and physical assault and possible enslavement.
When the women got home, the other alleged victim found evidence she'd been raped. They went to Inova Fairfax Hospital and were met there by police and a Mongolian Embassy representative.
One woman suffered multiple contusions and lacerations and required nine stitches, according to the search warrant affidavit. The other had a handprint bruise on one leg and a large abrasion over her right eye.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Fairfax County Police executed a search warrant at the Burke home, seizing electronics and flooring samples that reveal red stains.
Detectives wrote in court documents that when they went to the Burke home to execute the search warrant, it appeared just as the alleged victims had described. They found what appeared to be blood on the carpet. The detective reports that when he spoke to the couple that lived there, they were extraordinarily nervous. The man soon asked the detectives to leave.
In addition to the couple, two other men live at the home. Search warrant affidavits were also issued to take buccal swabs from all of them, in order to gather DNA.
Police have identified the suspects but have taken the unusual step of getting the word out about the alleged assaults because they fear there may be more victims.
Any other potential victims or anyone with knowledge about the case should contact Detective Darrin DeCoster at 703-246-4524 or at darrin.decoster@fairfaxcounty.gov.
