Northern Virginia bureau chief Julie Carey reports on new arrests in two gang-related murders.
What to Know
- Six suspects have been arrested in the death of Christian Sosa Rivas, whose body was found Jan. 12.
- Warrants revealed that he'd styled himself as a leader of a local gang clique, a claim that didn't sit well with other gang leaders.
- Documents show a teen girl -- who was slain weeks after Sosa Rivas was killed -- was one of the last people to see him alive.
Six people have been arrested in connection with the Prince William County gang murder of a 21-year-old man, whose death investigation also led police to uncover the murder of a 15-year-old girl.
Search warrant documents show the girl -- who was slain less than a month after Christian Sosa Rivas was killed -- was one of the last people to see him alive.
Sosa Rivas' body was found Jan. 12 along the Potomac River near Dumfries, Virginia.
Four men were arrested Thursday in Pennsylvania and are charged with murder. Three were identified: Edgar Oswaldo Blanco Torres, Jose Martir Larios Espenal and Samuel Enrique Villalobos Sanchez. Police did not release the name of the fourth, who is a minor.
Also, two female suspects, Angelica Maria Blanco and Keyri Sujey Portillo Gonzalez, were arrested Feb. 12 near Baltimore. They face charges of conspiracy to commit a felony.
Search warrant documents reveal police are investigating the possibility that Sosa Rivas was killed in early January by MS-13 gang members. Police have connected his death to the slaying of a Gaithersburg teen, 15-year-old Damaris Alexandra Reyes Rivas, whose body was found Feb. 11 in a Fairfax County park. Police say she had been kidnapped and killed.
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Police said Sosa Rivas also had a relationship with 17-year-old Venus Iraheta, who had been missing for a month before she returned to her family's Fairfax County home last week and was taken into custody in connection with Reyes Rivas' death.
A search warrant filed in court revealed that Sosa Rivas' was claiming to be a leader of a local clique of the gang MS-13 -- which didn't sit well with other gang leaders.
"Local MS13 clique leaders began contacting the victim and questioning his rank," a search warrant read.
Police believe those leaders then used the social media accounts "of female associates in an effort to lure out unsuspecting victims."
According to the search warrant, police believe Sosa Rivas was lured away from his normal surroundings and murdered.
The investigation into Sosa Rivas' death led police to uncover the slaying of the 15-year-old Reyes Rivas, who had been missing from her home in Gaithersburg since December.
Detectives began to uncover the murder of the girl while attending a multi-jurisdiction briefing Jan. 25 led by Prince George's County Police, said Fairfax Police Chief Edwin Roessler during a press conference last week. During the January event, authorities determined that two missing juveniles from Fairfax County were "indirectly linked by association" to Sosa Rivas, whose body had been found just two weeks before.
A total of 10 suspects were arrested last week in connection with the girl's abduction and death. Among them, five -- an 18-year-old, a 21-year-old and three juveniles -- are facing charges of murder, abduction and gang participation. Five more suspects -- two 18-year-olds and three juveniles -- have been charged with abduction and gang participation in that case.
