A Fairfax County, Virginia, woman who went missing and was later found dead vanished after she and her ex-boyfriend had a “goodbye dinner,” court documents say she told a friend.
Hannah Choi disappeared from her home in the Kingstowne area on March 5. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office found her body weeks later in a wooded area of Piscataway Park in Maryland. Choi was 35.
Her ex-boyfriend, Joel Mosso Merino, 27, disappeared and remains wanted for second-degree murder and disposal of a body.
Search warrant documents include chilling new details on the victim and the man police call “Fairfax County’s most wanted.”
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Friends told police Choi and Merino had recently broken up and went to an Outback Steakhouse on March 5 for what a friend called a goodbye dinner. The friend was staying with Choi at the time and saw leftovers from the restaurant in her fridge later.
But Choi wasn’t there. The friend called police.
An affidavit says Merino told his nephew he killed Choi. He allegedly said that when they returned to her townhouse from the restaurant, they argued and he pushed her. She hit her head and stopped breathing, Merino reportedly said.
The nephew told police Merino said he wrapped Choi’s body in bedsheets, put her into a car and drove her to the park, where he left her body.
Choi’s sister shared her family’s devastation at a news conference.
“Hannah's been taken away from us and from everyone who loves her — present tense. We all still love her,” Minna Choi said. “I cannot begin to describe how much we’re all gonna miss her.”
Fairfax County detectives said they found the car Merino used to move Choi’s body.
The affidavit said detectives found bedsheets inside the car that appeared to have blood on them.
A month later, though, detectives still haven't found Merino.
The Choi family is offering a $40,000 reward for any information that leads police to Merino. He stands 5-foot-7 and weighs 230 pounds. He may be using a different name, and police have information he was in the Atlanta area. He bought a plane ticket to southern California before the killing. Police waited at the airport but he never arrived.
