In the winter of 1988, the lives of two promising young adults were tragically cut short in a secluded, wooded area near Reston, Virginia. Warren H. Fulton III, a 22-year-old man, and his girlfriend, Rachael A. Raver, also 22, were found deceased on December 6, 1988, after having been last seen leaving a sports bar in Washington, D.C., shortly after midnight on December 4th. The couple, who had been dating for a few months, had plans to attend church with Fulton's parents the morning they were discovered. Fulton was a senior and the captain of the baseball team at George Washington University, while Raver was a recent graduate of the same university.
The initial investigation into their deaths yielded no suspects, and the case grew cold for nearly two decades. The turning point came in 2005 when advancements in forensic technology allowed for a DNA match from evidence collected at the crime scene. The DNA belonged to Alfredo R. Prieto, a native of El Salvador who was already on death row in California for the 1990 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl. This breakthrough reignited the investigation into the murders of Fulton and Raver.
Prieto was extradited to Virginia to face charges for the 1988 slayings. His legal proceedings were lengthy and complex, involving multiple trials. In 2007, a Fairfax County jury convicted Prieto of capital murder in the deaths of Fulton and Raver, as well as rape and other felonies. The prosecution presented evidence suggesting Fulton was shot in the back while on his knees, and Raver was shot and then raped as she lay dying. Prieto's first trial ended in a mistrial during the sentencing phase. He was tried again in 2008 and sentenced to death, but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned the sentence due to a technical error.
A third trial focused solely on sentencing was held in 2010, and a jury once again recommended two death sentences for Prieto for the murders of Fulton and Raver. Throughout the legal battles, Prieto's defense attorneys argued that he was intellectually disabled, which would have made him ineligible for the death penalty. However, these claims were ultimately rejected by the courts. In addition to the murders of Fulton, Raver, and the teenager in California, authorities linked Prieto to as many as six other homicides. After exhausting his appeals, Alfredo Prieto was executed by lethal injection in Virginia on October 1, 2015.
