In the late summer of 1989, a grim discovery was made in Prince William County, Virginia. On September 2nd, the body of 27-year-old Manuel F. Sermeno was found inside a burning car along Interstate 95. An investigation into his death determined that he had been shot. For years, the case remained unsolved, leaving a painful void for those who knew the young man.
The investigation into who was responsible for Sermeno's violent death stretched on for over a decade without a resolution. A break in the case would come from a seemingly unrelated series of crimes and advancements in forensic technology. The name Alfredo R. Prieto, a Salvadoran-American, would eventually be linked to Sermeno's murder. This connection, however, was not made until Prieto was investigated for a string of other violent offenses.
Subsequent investigations and the use of DNA profiling connected Prieto to at least eight other murders committed between 1988 and 1990 in both Virginia and California. While he was convicted for several of these murders and ultimately sentenced to death, he was never formally charged in connection with Manuel F. Sermeno's death. Law enforcement authorities, however, identified Prieto as the prime suspect in the 1989 slaying. After years of legal proceedings for his other crimes, Alfredo R. Prieto was executed by lethal injection in Virginia on October 1, 2015, closing a chapter on a violent history that left a trail of victims, including a young man found on the side of a Virginia interstate.
