First Child Victim Awareness Day Set

Erica Heather Smith was found dead in August 2002, left in a grave along Broad Run Creek near an old pump house and not far from , eleven days after she disappeared. Her murderer has never been brought to justice.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office’s first Child Victim Awareness Day—set to run from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 4 at the Junction Plaza shopping center in Ashburn—will focus on the 14-year-old girl, and Sheriff Michael L. Chapman plans to provide information about the status of the investigation at 3 p.m.

Chapman established the new event to educate parents about the best way to protect children from becoming a victim of a crime. The Virginia DMV Ident-A-Kid program will also attend to offer parents cell phone electronic child identification, eKid-ID, along with a traditional child ID card.

Specialty units from the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office—including the Motor Unit, the Crime Scene Unit, the Bicycle Unit, the Underwater Search and Evidence Recovery Team and others—will be there as well. Residents will also be able to view the agency’s specialty vehicles. For more information on the event, visit www.loudoun.gov/childvictimawareness.

Anyone with any information regarding the murder of Erica Heather Smith is asked to call the Loudoun Crime Solvers anonymous tip line at 703-777-1919 or 1-877-777-1931. If this information leads to an arrest and indictment, the caller is entitled to a cash reward.

For more information on the Erica Smith case and for case updates, or to submit a tip online, please visit www.loudoun.gov/ericasmith.