Montgomery County police said Thursday that they think a man killed a Bethesda woman 20 years ago, then buried her body in Prince George’s County near the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.
Alison Thresher, then 45, of Bethesda, went missing in May 2000, when she didn’t show up for work at The Washington Post for two days, her family told police at the time.
The new theory police made public on Thursday is their first update in the case in more than two years.
Police first investigated Thresher’s disappearance as suspicious, then as a homicide, starting in February 2001, according to a press release.
The case has never been solved and Thresher’s body has not been found.
In 2010, Thresher’s daughter Hannah told police that Fernando Asturizaga, her Spanish teacher, abused her starting more than a decade earlier, Bethesda Beat reported in 2018. Police said at the time that the abuse happened from 1999 to 2001.
Hannah had attended Friends Community School in College Park, where Asturizaga taught Spanish. He had also babysat Hannah and her brother Sam — while they were in their father’s custody — which their mother objected to.
Police have said Asturizaga abused Hannah from 1999 to 2001. In 2012, he was convicted on rape and child abuse charges related to that abuse and sentenced to more than 100 years in prison.
In April 2018, police announced that Asturizaga, 51, was being looked at for his possible connection to the disappearance and apparent death of Thresher. Police said they had evidence suggesting Thresher was killed in her apartment, then taken to another location.
Police said at the time that they think Thresher suspected that Asturizaga was abusing her daughter. Detectives said then that they didn’t had enough information to consider Asturizaga a suspect.
On the day in 2018 that police announced that Asturizaga might have a connection to the disappearance, he was found dead in his jail cell in Western Maryland. Officials ruled his death a suicide.
On Thursday, police said in a press release that they have “received credible information” that Asturizaga killed Thresher and buried her near the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center on Baltimore Avenue.
Police said they have searched more than 300 acres in the area, but have not found her.
Sgt. Rebecca Innocenti, a police spokeswoman, said in an interview Thursday that Asturizaga is still considered to have a possible connection to the case, which remains under investigation.
Innocenti declined to elaborate on Thursday on how police learned the additional information about Thresher’s remains, saying it would “compromise the investigation” into her death.
Police said the area where they think Thresher is buried is frequented by hikers. They are asking anyone with information to call them at 240-773-5070.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media