STERLING, VA – The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed the identity of both the victim and the alleged perpetrator of Sunday’s carjacking and fatal hit-and-run incident outside a shopping center in Northern Virginia. The deceased, Melody Waldecker, a 54-year-old grandmother from Maryland, was reportedly attempting to stop a man from stealing her vehicle when she was struck and killed.
Waldecker had exited her Kia Sorento and entered a 7-Eleven in the Town Center at Sterling shopping center when she observed a man entering her vehicle. In an attempt to stop him, she approached the vehicle, but the man, identified as 21-year-old Jose Aguilar-Martinez, drove off, hitting Waldecker in the process and resulting in her death at the scene.
Law enforcement officers quickly reported a lookout on a broad description of the suspect and the vehicle, and a pursuit commenced shortly after several eyewitness reports revealed Aguilar-Martinez hitting another car and fleeing the scene once more. Authorities eventually apprehended him at Trumpet Circle, a residential zone, following the broadcast of further sightings, and held him at the scene at gunpoint.
Aguilar-Martinez, reportedly an undocumented immigrant most recently residing in Sterling, possessed a California driver’s license and has now been detained by Homeland Security Investigations under an Immigration and Customs Enforcement order. Charged with felony carjacking, Aguilar-Martinez is currently being held in police custody without bond, with additional charges pending.
Waldecker, a mother of four and grandmother of eight, had recently visited her ill mother and was a nursing home caregiver in Montgomery County, Maryland. Her dedication to her family is evident in the memories shared by her family members and depicted on her Facebook page, where she is seen caring for her mother and spending quality time with her grandchildren at an Orioles game at Camden Yards.