STERLING, Va. — A woman was killed after being run over by her own car in Sterling, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. It happened during a carjacking on Sunday morning.
Deputies were called out to the 7-Eleven in the 21000 Towncenter Plaza for a report of a carjacking. When they got to the scene, they found a Silver Spring woman dead.
Investigators say Melody Waldecker, 54, was struck as the carjacker was fleeing the scene Sunday morning. Scanner audio said witnesses believed she was ejected from her Kia.
Waldecker's son told WUSA9 she was on her way home from visiting her mother at a nursing home in Leesburg when she decided to stop at the convenience store. That's when she was carjacked.
Dispatch calls also said the suspect hit other vehicles while trying to escape. One of the vehicle owners shared video where you could hear long screeching noises before the Kia sideswiped her truck.
The suspect was taken into custody on Trumpet Circle.
"I'm so sad," resident Pitsanu Setapayak told WUSA9. "I never knew something can happen like that here. I'm so sad. I'm so sorry."
Deputies say there is no ongoing threat to the community. The investigation is still ongoing. The sheriff's office is asking anyone who witnessed the incident and hasn't spoken with law enforcement to contact Detective Rodriquez at (703) 777-1021.
Waldecker is the second person in two weeks to be run over by their own car in a carjacking in Virginia.