Man, 30, Is Charged In Woman's Slaying

The body of a 25-year-old woman was found on the sidewalk of a cul-de-sac in the Vienna area early yesterday, and Fairfax County police said they charged a man with abduction and murder in the case.

The victim, Homaira Rahman, lived a half-mile from where she was found, according to police. Detectives think that she and the suspect knew each other, said Officer Don Gotthardt, a Fairfax police spokesman.

Police declined to give details of how Rahman was killed, but they said she suffered trauma to her upper body. An autopsy will be performed.

Gotthardt said the suspect, Ehsan Amin, 30, lives in the 16000 block of Kings Mountain Drive in Woodbridge. However, a man reached by telephone at that address said Amin stays there only occasionally.

Amin was taken to Fairfax's Adult Detention Center, police said.

Tooba Mayel, a close friend of Rahman's family, said Rahman was a generous and sparkling force among loved ones and the broader Afghan community. Her family moved to the area in the 1980s, and she was born in the United States.

"She was a beautiful, tall girl with a smile on her face," Mayel said. "Friends and family always called her sunshine. Our entire community is in grief right now."

Rahman encouraged young Afghan American women to find jobs, Mayel said, and "she was always volunteering to do charity work for the kids in Afghanistan."

Rahman, who lived in the 8700 block of Litwalton Court in the Vienna area, was also known among her friends as "the fashionista," Mayel said. "She wore the best clothes, the newest trends in clothes. She just had a lot of love for that," Mayel said. "She's just a very colorful person. She's always wearing bright colors, happy-go-lucky, very bubbly."

A man out for a walk came across Rahman's body in the 2300 block of Malraux Drive shortly after 6:30 a.m., police said.

"Her arms were very badly scraped up," said Dennis McAuliffe, a neighbor who also saw the scene. Rahman was fully clothed, and a pocketbook lay by her side, he said.

"I don't know if there's a quieter street in Vienna, in Fairfax County, than here," McAuliffe said.

Flags dotted the neighborhood for the Fourth of July.

"People don't drive fast. There are a lot of kids. It's a pretty family-oriented neighborhood," resident Ron Alexander said.

Staff researcher Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.