Man, 27, on the run after police charge him with murder in connection to live-in ex-girlfriend's disappearance
- Joel Merino is wanted on suspicion of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hannah Choi, in Virginia.
- Choi's body hasn't been found, but officials say evidence makes them certain she's dead.
Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, continue to search for a 27-year-old man wanted on suspicion of killing his 35-year-old live-in ex-girlfriend and dumping her body in a Maryland park earlier this month.
While Hannah Choi's body hasn't been found, officials said that they've recovered evidence that makes them certain that she was killed by Joel Merino. At a March 15 press conference, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis called it "unusual" and a "once in a decade circumstance" that his department would have enough evidence to issue an arrest warrant for murder without a body.
Merino is wanted on charges of second-degree murder and the disposal of a body. Officials haven't released much information on Merino, other than to say that he is "fairly transient," may be going by another name, and that there had been no prior calls for service at the home he shared with Choi.
In an interview with Insider on Wednesday, Choi's sister Minna, 31, said that she had only met Merino a couple of times, in passing, after her sister started dating him last summer. Choi says she didn't know much about Merino, and first learned of her sister's break-up after she went missing. Choi says she has since learned that Merino was supposed to move out of her sister's home, which she co-owns, a few days after her sister went missing.
Sgt. Tara Gerhard, a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Police, told Insider on Wednesday that the department had "no significant updates" to the case. She said that investigators were waiting to hear back on digital evidence warrants to plan new searches.
The Fairfax County Police did not immediately respond to Insider's request for an update on the case on Wednesday.
According to March 15 press release from the Fairfax County Police Department, Choi was reported missing on Sunday after friends showed up at her house in Alexandria and no one answered the door. They then called police, who entered the home and found nothing amiss other than bedding missing from one of the bedrooms, according to the press release.
Friends and family told police that Choi spent the day prior with Merino.
"Detectives believe during their time together Ms. Choi may have sustained a significant injury. Detectives believe Merino then removed Ms. Choi from the home and transported her to another location," according to the press release.
Inside the car "detectives discovered evidence to suggest Ms. Choi was harmed prior to her disappearance," according to the press release.
Officials wouldn't elaborate on what kind of evidence they found inside the car at a March 15 press conference but said it made them certain that she had died.
"We know something bad happened, really bad," Major Ed O'Carroll, major crimes commander, said at the press conference. "We have evidence and details that make us believe firmly believe without any doubt that she's deceased."
O'Carroll said that detectives believe Merino went to Piscataway Park in Maryland hours after killing Choi, where they believe he may have dumped her body. Law enforcement agencies have conducted multiple searches of the park, but haven't found Choi's body yet.
After Choi's disappearance, Merino fled the state and was last spotted in Georgia, O'Carroll said at the March 15 press conference. O'Carroll says investigators believe he has since left Georgia, and are not sure about his whereabouts. Officials told WUSA that they haven't ruled out the possibility that Merino has fled the country.
Minna Choi told Insider that she and her parents were in "shock and disbelief" to learn about Hannah's disappearance and likely death.
"My sister, she is not a victim. She was tough. She never would have tolerated abuse of any form and so the fact that even someone as strong as my sister and as tough as my sister would become the victim of domestic violence — that is just incomprehensible to us," Choi said.
She added: "It feels like we're being stuck out in limo because we don't have her body, we don't have her killer, we don't have much about what happened exactly."
The family has set up a GoFundMe to raise money for a reward on information leading to Merino's arrest.