A 19-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl were found fatally shot yesterday on the deck of a house in Loudoun County, in what the county sheriff called either a murder and a suicide or a double suicide.
Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said Michaela Wegner, 15, and Harold Anthony Holt, 19, who lived in the eastern Loudoun development of South Riding, were believed to be dating. But there was no explanation for what had prompted the incident, which left friends and acquaintances of the teenagers struggling to come to terms with tragedy in families for which they voiced praise and admiration.
According to the sheriff's department, the teenagers were found about 4:30 p.m. by a member of the girl's family on a rear deck of the family home in the 26000 block of Iverson Drive. A handgun was on the deck as well, the sheriff's department said.
Simpson said authorities would await autopsy results to determine precisely what had happened.
The teenagers showed signs of life when found, indicating that they had been shot only a short time before, according to the sheriff's department. Wegner and Holt were taken to hospitals, where they died.
Todd Egress, a neighbor of Wegner's, called her an extremely bright young woman of surpassing sweetness who also was an athlete.
Wegner was on the community swim team, Egress said, and was "just a really sweet girl." He said that she was a "very, very good student," who "definitely had a very bright future" and that Wegner and her family were the kind of people who made you feel "good, having neighbors like that."
A woman who answered the telephone last night at Holt's family home on Eustis Street identified herself as Holt's grandmother and declined extensive comment. "I just do not have a clue as to what happened," she said.
A neighbor of the Holts, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, said he was well-acquainted with the 19-year-old. "We knew him pretty well," the man said. "He was a great brother and a great son."
The man described Holt as "very loving and caring . . . really a model kid." He said Holt had a younger sister of whom he was extremely solicitous. "He was just always at his sister's side when she was outside playing."
South Riding is a growing development wedged just south of Dulles International Airport that this year celebrates its 10th anniversary.
Last March, 15-year-old Nicholas Shomaker, who also was a student at Broad Run, was shot and killed in the basement of a 17-year-old friend's house in Ashburn. The friend later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Staff writer Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.
