College Student’s Body Found After He Went Missing Following a Car Crash

Virginia authorities said the body of a college student who went missing following a car crash has been found, and investigators are now looking into the circumstances surrounding his death.

The Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) and the Prince William County Police Department (PWCPD) stated that the body of Kyle Coleman, 19, was found in a retention pond in Fairfax County on Tuesday, June 10.

According to the FCPD, officers and emergency crews responded to a 911 activation call from an iPhone at Galleria Drive and Tysons Boulevard on the evening of Friday, June 6. Upon their arrival, they found “an unoccupied 2019 blue Toyota Yaris in the tree line near the roadway.”

Authorities said that, according to an investigation, the Yaris was heading westbound on Galleria Drive, crossed into the eastbound lanes, exited the roadway onto the grass and hit a tree. Witnesses at the scene reported that a person was seen fleeing from the vehicle and possibly left the scene in another vehicle soon after the crash.

“Officers searched the vehicle and the surrounding area and did not locate any occupants involved in the crash or any evidence of foul play,” said the FCPD. “The Fire and Rescue Department utilized thermal imaging technology in the area for any involved persons, which yielded no results.”

Then on Saturday afternoon, the PWCPD received a missing person’s report for Kyle Coleman. The following day, on June 8, the PWCPD elevated the case to critically endangered missing after the department received video footage of Coleman prior to the crash.

On Monday, after the PWCPD shared the missing persons bulletin, FCPD detectives linked the crash to Coleman, authorities said, with both police departments working together in the case. That same day, a search was conducted that went into Tuesday.

“While conducting this search, our Underwater Search and Recovery Unit was able to eventually locate Coleman deceased, submerged in a nearby retention pond surrounded by thick brush,” the FCPD said, per the release. “Through the review of subsequent surveillance footage depicting Coleman leaving the crash scene, detectives were able to confirm that no one else was involved in the crash.”

According to NBC affiliate WRC and Washington, D.C. radio station WTOP, Coleman was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

“He was a wonderful kid, like a joy. Really didn’t give us any problems,” Kyle’s mother, Cimmerian Coleman, told WRC about two hours before the body, at the time unidentified, was located. “Just very well-liked, well-liked in the community, just very easy going. He was driven in terms of — with his leadership abilities, his academic abilities.

Alene Devereaux, a family friend, told WTOP that Coleman was friendly, vibrant and popular. “He was a leader,” Devereaux said. “He was a leader both in school and in the community. He was sort of that total package. He was always a joy and a positive spirit to be around, and he remained that person till the very, very end.”

Morehouse College issued a statement about Coleman’s death, writing in part: “Our entire Morehouse family grieves this unimaginable loss.⁠”