Surveillance Video Released In Year-Old Arlington Slaying

A year ago tomorrow, Paul M. Zeller walked out of a grocery store and was shot to death at close range outside the upscale Pentagon Row shopping complex, but Arlington County police say they still don't know who killed the 24-year-old Iraq veteran -- or why.

Police yesterday released two nine-second surveillance videos of Zeller entering and exiting the Harris Teeter grocery store minutes before the fatal shooting, hoping they would jog someone's memory about that summer night.

"Hopefully there's someone out there that has some piece of information, no matter how small, that we haven't found yet," said Arlington Detective Kevin Norwood, the lead investigator. Norwood said there were people in the area at the time of the shooting, just after midnight.

Zeller, described by his family as a "quiet, introverted" man, was walking back to his sister's house in the Aurora Highlands neighborhood after work when he was killed. He had taken Metro from his job at a College Park car dealership to the Pentagon City station, stopped at the grocery store and was walking the short distance to his sister's house when he was shot in front of the World Market store in the 1300 block of South Joyce Street.

"It's been an incredibly difficult year," said Lydia Robertson, 41, Zeller's older sister. She said she felt a huge responsibility for her brother, the youngest of eight children, because he was living with her and her family, although he had planned to move the next day.

"It's the biggest irony that that was the last night that he would've walked that way," Robertson said. She said Zeller had decided to move in with a friend to be closer to the Prince George's County Honda dealership where he worked selling and detailing cars.

Norwood said that police do not know whether his impending move was a factor in the shooting.

"It's a very disturbing case," said Norwood, citing the "violence of it, how he was killed and the location in a populated area with people around." There are several high-rise apartment buildings nearby.

Arlington had four homicides in 2006, and only the Zeller case has not been solved, said Lt. Brian Berke, head of the county's homicide/robbery unit. The lone homicide this year occurred last week, and a suspect has been arrested.

"We're still wide open on this case," Berke said. "We looked at a couple angles that didn't pan out. We haven't put it on the shelf though. But there's not a lot for us to go on."

Police would not say whether Zeller had been robbed, saying they did not want to taint the investigation, but family members said he did not appear to have been. The video shows Zeller wearing a blue T-shirt over black pants and carrying a shoulder bag.

"Because of the violence involved, normally something jumps out at you right away," Norwood said. Police had interviewed and re-interviewed witnesses, handed out hundreds of fliers and chased even the tiniest leads, he said.

"We can't find any enemies or anybody in his background who would've wanted to hurt him," Norwood said. "That's what makes it so strange."

Robertson said her brother had "no problems with anyone that we knew of, no issue in his life that would signal that anything was wrong."

"I can just picture him coming down that street, minding his own business," she said. "He wasn't a crazy guy that was trying to go out every night." She called him a "great uncle" to her two children, ages 9 and 6. Zeller used to take them to school every day, she said.

Zeller was honorably discharged from the Army in September 2004 after serving 10 months in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. After his discharge, he lived with his parents in Westcliffe, Colo., before moving in with his sister six months before he was killed.

Robertson said her close-knit military family's strong Christian faith has gotten them through the ordeal. Her parents and several of her siblings planned to visit Zeller's grave in Westcliffe together tomorrow, the anniversary of his death.

Family, friends and neighbors are offering a $5,000 reward to anyone with information on the case. Police said people with information should call 703-228-4242.