The body of 16-year-old Jholie Moussa of Alexandria, Virginia was found on Friday, Jan. 26 in a Fairfax County, Virginia park after she disappeared about two weeks ago, NBC Washington reports. Police said Friday night that they're treating the teenager's death as a homicide. The FBI didn't cite a specific reason why they're involved in the case, but they have the resources to help in the investigation of the teenager's death.
According to NBC Washington, Moussa left her home in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County on Jan. 12 after texting her twin sister Zhane to let her know she was going to Norfolk, Virginia for a party. Norfolk is more than three hours away from Alexandria.
Zhane said her sister seemed distracted after their classes at Mount Vernon High School on the day Jholie disappeared.
"She was doing my hair and then she stopped, for a good minute, to text some more. Then, out of nowhere, she was like, 'I gotta go, I gotta go!'" Zhane told NBC Washington. On the night of Jan. 12, the twins' mother, Syreeta Steward, missed a call from Jholie and then they never heard from her again.
"Normally, she would have responded back to me. If she calls me and I don't answer, she always follows it up with a text," Steward said.
Jholie's family reported her missing the next day. Initially, Fairfax County police entered Jholie into the National Crime Information Center database as a runaway teenager. "Based on the facts of the case, there is nothing that indicates that Moussa is in any danger," county police previously said in a statement.
An officer found Jholie's body in a wooded area of Woodlawn Park covered in leaves around 11 a.m. on Friday. The preliminary identification of her body was based on a tattoo of an infinity symbol on her right shoulder with her name and her twin's name, police said.
NBC Washington reports that police said detectives spoke with 20 people who had recent contact with Jholie, but many of her friends were not cooperating with the investigators. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Fairfax County police at (703) 691-2131, or the FBI at (202) 278-2000.