On December 8, 1987, a passerby discovered skeletal remains along a hiking trail off Shreve Mill Road south of Leesburg in Loudoun County, Virginia. The bones belonged to 27-year-old Charlotte Ann Powell from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. It took investigators approximately seven months to ascertain her identity, giving them a big breakthrough in what was then Loudoun County’s most infamous unsolved murder. Charlotte lived with her parents and struggled with mental health issues, often leaving to hitchhike around the DMV. She left home for the last time in July 1987, never to be seen alive again. The state of decomposition made evidence scarce. Investigators reopened her case in 2013, but uncovered no new leads. If you have any information on this case, please contact Loudoun County Criminal Investigations at (703) 777-0475.
Unsolved: Charlotte Powell
Secret Virginia 