State, county police ask for help in solving cold case

State and county police say this man, the last known boyfriend of Veronica Hepworth, isn't necessarily a suspect, but they'd like to talk to him about Hepworth's death. She was killed in Loudoun County in 1982. (Photo courtesy of Virginia State Police)
Veronica Hepworth was 20 when she was killed in Loudoun County in 1982. (Photo courtesy of Virginia State Police)
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WASHINGTON — It’s been 31 years since 20-year-old Veronica Hepworth was killed in Loudoun County, but police are hoping that by getting the story out again, the killer might be caught.

Police are hoping that a picture of Hepworth’s last known boyfriend could be the key to solving this decades-old cold case.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says the picture is from 1982. Today the boyfriend would be in his fifties.

“He’s not necessarily a suspect in the case,” Geller says. “We would like to identify him and talk to him, see if he had spoken to her that night.”

Hepworth was last seen at 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 25, 1982, at the Fancy Dancer Bar, on Route 1 in Fairfax. Her body was found along Route 50 in Loudoun County at 7 a.m.

Geller says it’s not known whether Hepworth left the bar alone or tried to hitchhike home. But according to witnesses, Geller says, a red pickup truck dating from the 1960s or ’70s was seen in the area where the body was found.

Geller says the Virginia State Police and the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office are working together on the case and on learning the identity of the man in the picture.

Anyone with information about the murder, or who might know the identity of the man in the picture is being urged to call the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Fairfax Field Office at 703-376-1690 or the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office at 703-737-8487. Calls will be kept confidential.

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