20-year-old missing for a month is found dead in neighborhood park, Maryland cops say

A missing woman was found dead in a neighborhood park near the University of Maryland campus nearly a month after her disappearance, police say.

Keylin Yolibeth Chavez-Dominguez, 20, of Rockville, was murdered, according to the Montgomery County Department of Police.

Family and friends last saw Chavez-Dominguez the evening of Dec. 30 — and she was officially reported missing Jan. 2, police said in a Jan. 29 news release.

Officers found her body at the Upper Paint Branch Stream Valley Park at about 2 p.m. Jan. 28 after they were called to a “suspicious situation,” according to police. The park is in College Park, where the University of Maryland is located.

Now a murder investigation is underway and her cause of death will be determined by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, authorities said. They didn’t announce any suspects.

One day after her family and friends saw Chavez-Dominguez at her apartment in Braxfield Court, a witness told authorities they saw her leaving her apartment complex with a Hispanic man Dec. 31, according to an earlier police news release.

Authorities are offering a $10,000 reward for information resulting in the suspect’s arrest. Anyone who may have tips about the case should contact Crime Solvers of Montgomery County at 1-866-411-8477, police said.

College Park is about 10 miles northeast of Washington, D.C.

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.