When I spoke to Jason Abarca’s mother in December, she wanted the police and the public to see her son as a person who was missing and not as a fugitive who was on the run.
She wanted them to look beyond his alleged crimes and recognize the anguish that led up to them.
She wanted them to find him.
“I just feel so helpless,” Jennifer Soto told me at the time. “We just sit at home and wonder, ‘What can we do?’ I feel guilty for even just sitting at home in a warm house knowing my son could be out in the middle of the woods somewhere dying or dead.”
On Monday, more than four months after the 19-year-old from Maryland was last seen alive, his family received a call telling them that a body believed to belong to Abarca was found in a tree in a densely wooded area of Frederick County, Va.
That call left the family devastated. It also left them angry because it confirmed what they had long suspected and why they had repeatedly pleaded with authorities to keep searching that area — the teenager hadn’t made it far from where he crashed a car.
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The treatment that missing persons cases get across the country can vary greatly. When some people disappear, phones buzz with alerts, authorities hold news conferences, and the public’s concern keeps the pressure at a level that ensures searches are launched and sustained. When others go missing, families are left on their own to plead for help.
Abarca’s case shows how isolating and frustrating cases can be for those families, the ones whose missing person doesn’t fit an easy narrative or the image of an ideal victim. On Dec. 13, according to a police account, Abarca took his mother’s rental SUV from their Maryland home, drove to Virginia and crashed on a ramp connecting Interstate 81 to Berryville Avenue in Winchester. He then attempted to carjack a vehicle nearby before fleeing and stealing a car at knifepoint from a woman at a McDonald’s, according to police. He then crashed that car, too.
Soto and her husband, Benito Soto, don’t deny that any of that may have happened. But context matters, and the reason they initially spoke to me about his case (and I told you about it in a previous column) was because they wanted people to know the full story. Months before the teenager took off in that rental SUV, an older brother, Korey Platt, a captain in the Army, died by suicide. As relatives tell it, the loss left Abarca struggling to cope. They believe that when he disappeared, he was in the middle of a mental health crisis that was exacerbated by his taking too much Adderall, a medication he was prescribed.
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Family members shared that information with police officials in hopes that it would change how they saw him as they searched for him. Benito Soto said the months that followed were instead filled with reminders that authorities were looking for a criminal who might be hiding, and not a young man who would have called home if he could.
Soto said that on March 11, officers with the U.S. Marshals Service showed up at the Baltimore home of Abarca’s older brother and demanded to search the place. When questioned why they were there, they said they were looking for Jason and were sent by the Winchester Police Department, he said.
On April 3, a photo of Abarca appeared on the Winchester Police Department’s Facebook page. “Wanted Fugitive,” the post read, followed by a description of the events of Dec. 13 and a list of the charges he faced: one felony count of carjacking, two felony counts of attempted carjacking and two misdemeanor counts of destruction of property.
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Most of the comments that followed — which the family read — were cruel. Many were also racist. Those commenters took issue with him being described as White. One comment read, “And I’m Michael Jordan.” Another called him “a punk and a criminal.”
One commenter, though, noted that he was someone’s child and his death would mean his mom lost two sons. “Context is incredibly important and there’s too much nuance in life for generalized statements without evaluating all of the facts,” that comment read. “… If he is found he will be tried for his crimes, but it is nobody else’s job but our judicial system’s to judge him. Before plastering someone’s photo and then crucifying them for their absolute worst moments, I really urge everyone to pause. Are you more than your worst moments?”
Soto said the Winchester Police Department handled the case poorly from the beginning and throughout. Meanwhile, he praised officers with the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office for finding Abarca’s body. The family had searched near that area but couldn’t return whenever they wanted because signs warned against trespassing, Soto said.
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Winchester Police Chief Amanda R. Behan said in a statement she sent me that the department is “committed to investigating every case thoroughly, including this one.”
“We understand that this is a challenging time for the Abarca family and we are here to support them throughout the process,” she said. She described the Winchester Police Department and the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office as working “hand in hand” during the search. She said the police department “deployed multiple assets, including the Department’s specialized Investigations Unit and Community Resource Team, and executed several search warrants.”
“Our heart goes out to the Abarca family and all other families dealing with a missing loved one,” she said.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in a public post announced the discovery of the body and said that because of the condition, the medical examiner’s office will have to work with the Virginia Department of Forensic Science to make an identification. That post contained a statement from Sheriff Lenny Millholland: “Whatever crime this young man may or may not have committed in an adjoining jurisdiction, there is a family hurting over his disappearance and looking for him. If he was last in our county, we owe it to everyone involved to provide whatever assistance and answers that we can.”
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Soto said his family has many questions. He said they don’t know how his body was positioned in the tree. He said they were told only that his leg was found in a part that split into a V and that his body was below that. The family suspects he was placed there. From the call records they requested and received, they know he was being followed by several people, including one who said he was armed and not scared.
Soto said the family wants to see the case receive an independent investigation. They also want to see people held accountable.
“It’s completely destroyed us,” Soto said of the disappearance and the months that followed. “Jennifer has been a zombie, just constantly crying day in and day out, day in and day out. … As far as Jason resting now, that brings some closure. But it’s not enough.”
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