Missing college student found dead in retention pond after crash, Virginia cops say
A college student was found dead in a retention pond three days after he was reported missing following a car crash, police said.
Authorities confirmed the identity of a body found June 10 in a retention pond to be 19-year-old Kyle Coleman, the Fairfax County Police Department said in a June 11 news release.
Detectives on June 9 linked Coleman — a rising sophomore at Morehouse College in Georgia, according to a Facebook post by the school — to a June 6 car crash after he was reported missing the next day, police said.
Officers responded to the crash at about 11:15 p.m. in Tysons after receiving an emergency activation call from an iPhone, police said.
A blue Toyota Yaris that was headed west crossed into eastbound lanes, then went off the road and hit a tree, according to police, who said they found the crashed vehicle empty.
Witnesses told officers they saw a person leave the vehicle after the crash, but occupants of the car or evidence of foul play was not found during an initial search of the area, police said.
Coleman’s body was found days later “submerged in a nearby retention pond surrounded by thick brush,” according to police.
Detectives are investigating the circumstances of Coleman’s death, police said.
Tysons is about a 15-mile drive west from Washington, D.C.
Community mourns ‘college kid full of promise’
LeLe Jones, who said Coleman was her son’s best friend and came over on the weekends for pancakes, remembered him as “a college kid full of promise” in a June 11 Facebook post.
“He is the kid who opened his Bible app before bedtime no matter where he was because that’s who his mama and daddy raised,” Jones said.
Coleman was involved in several campus organizations while majoring in business administration with a finance concentration, school officials said in a June 11 statement on Facebook.
“Our entire Morehouse family grieves this unimaginable loss. Kyle was known for his warmth, humility, and peaceful spirit,” officials said. “May we honor Kyle’s life by holding tightly to community, ambition, and peace.”
This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 11:53 AM with the headline "Missing college student found dead in retention pond after crash, Virginia cops say."
