The body found in April in a wooded area in southwest Frederick County has been positively identified as Jason Diego Abarca, the 19-year-old Maryland man who had been accused of carjacking a vehicle in Winchester on Dec. 13.
According to a Tuesday release from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, the Northern District Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Manassas confirmed the body, which was found in an “advanced stated of decomposition,” as Abarca. The young man’s stepfather, Benito Soto, had confirmed that the remains belonged to his stepson shortly after they were discovered near Star Tannery Road on April 29.
The Sheriff’s Office also revealed new details about the body’s discovery, clarifying previously reported information that had been given to The Winchester Star by Abarca’s family.
Abarca’s body was discovered near the location of the vehicle that he allegedly carjacked at knife-point from a parking lot in Winchester.
Searchers who located Abarca found his body with one leg stuck in the “Y” section of a large tree, approximately 5 feet up, according to the release. The rest of his body was “dangling downwards towards the ground, basically upside down,” according to the release.
The new details clarify statements that Abarca’s family made following the body’s discovery, including that his body had been found “stuffed” inside of a tree.
“It is believed that the contradiction in how the body was actually found, versus the family’s earlier statement to the press, could come down to mishearing that the body was found STUCK in a tree, not STUFFED in a tree,” the release stated. “Sheriff Millholland believes it to be totally understandable that, during the first moments of stress, upon hearing of their loved one, that some information being relayed by phone was misunderstood and later innocently passed on without realizing the lack of validity to such a statement.”
A decision was reached by the Sheriff’s Office and Abarca’s family to release the sensitive details of the body’s discovery in order to dissuade further misinformation and answer questions posed by the public, according to the release.
Abarca’s mother, Jennifer Soto, previously said her son had been depressed following the suicide of his brother, Army Capt. Korey Decarlos Platt, and a subsequent family argument concerning an inscription on his late brother’s tombstone. She indicated that before leaving his Hagerstown, Maryland, home on Dec. 13, Abarca took more than his prescribed dosage of Adderall for his diagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which she suspected caused him to begin experiencing drug-induced hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.
Abarca left home in an SUV that he had been renting before crashing the vehicle on the Interstate 81 southbound off-ramp to Berryville Avenue in Winchester, according to information from the Winchester Police Department.
After exiting the SUV he unsuccessfully attempted to carjack a vehicle on Berryville Avenue while holding a knife. He then succeeded in carjacking another vehicle at 4:02 p.m. from the McDonald’s parking lot at 1124 Berryville Ave.
No one was hurt in either incident, according to police.
The car allegedly stolen by Abarca was found on the evening of Dec. 13 abandoned on the gravel Star Tannery Road. A previous Sheriff’s Office release indicated that Abarca fled on foot from the vehicle.
Law enforcement officials searched for Abarca in the ensuing days and months, but his body wasn’t discovered until April 29, when a search involving 78 people, including law enforcement officials and search and rescues groups, was held.
Abarca’s family previously expressed concerns that their son could have met with foul play following the alleged carjacking.
Abarca’s cause of death has not yet been determined by the state medical examiner’s office.
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