The family of a missing 72-year-old Lorton woman who investigators say may be the victim of foul play pleaded for the public’s help in locating her Tuesday as authorities announced a $20,000 reward in the case.
“We are extremely worried about her,” Jennifer Ball, Lu’s only daughter, said at a news conference Tuesday. “We want her back home safe. We want to tell her we love her in person.”
Ball said her mother has lived in the area for 30 years and spent her retirement caring for the elderly, even during the coronavirus pandemic. Police did not say where Lu worked. Ball said her mother also was devoted to her family.
After Lu did not report for work on June 4, her employer asked police to perform a welfare check, Fairfax County police said.
Officers visited her home in the 9200 block of Davis Lane and found her car on the driveway with fresh groceries inside, but they found no sign of forced entry into the home, police said. Lu could not be located.
Police that afternoon also visited a home in Belle Haven that Lu frequents, but she was not there. Officers eventually searched Lu’s home in Lorton and discovered evidence that led them to think she may have been the victim of violence. Police have declined to discuss that evidence.
Police said they think Lu arrived home after shopping at the Aldi at Gordon Plaza but never finished taking her groceries inside. Maj. Ed O’Carroll, bureau commander of Major Crimes, Cyber and Forensics, said at Tuesday’s news conference that investigators think there is a small period when Lu disappeared.
“We do think the facts and circumstances tie into a fairly narrow window,” O’Carroll said. He said investigators had canvassed Lu’s neighborhood and were looking for any surveillance video that might have captured what happened to Lu or other clues. They are interviewing current and former renters who lived in Lu’s home.
Fairfax County Crime Solvers is offering the $20,000 reward for information that leads to the discovery of what happened to the woman.
