Search Continues For Fairfax Officer

Lieutenant Was Not Dive Team Member

The Fairfax County police officer who disappeared in the waters of Pohick Bay on Tuesday afternoon had volunteered to play the role of a "victim" during a training session for a helicopter water rescue, though he was not a member of the dive team, and he has been honored at least twice for his bravery in the line of duty.

The missing officer is 2nd Lt. Francis J. Stecco, 42, a 19-year veteran of the Fairfax force, law enforcement sources said. Although boats, helicopters and divers scoured the water and land around the bay in southeastern Fairfax, Stecco was not located yesterday.

Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer continued to describe the search for Stecco as a "search and rescue" mission, but the mood was grim among Stecco's colleagues gathered at Pohick Bay. Many commanders and officers, including Rohrer, arrived at the scene not long after Stecco was reported missing at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday and stayed through the night and into yesterday as the search continued.

But the officers realized that the chances of Stecco surviving for more than 24 hours were very slim. If he did not survive, he would be the sixth Fairfax officer to die in the line of duty in the department's 68-year history. Authorities said the search will continue until Stecco is found.

Police declined to identify Stecco publicly, saying his family did not want to be overwhelmed by well-wishers. Police also did not want to provide many of the details of the training exercise because it is now the subject of an internal affairs investigation, Officer Shelley Broderick said.

"Anytime something goes wrong in any operation, we conduct an internal investigation," Broderick said. "We're basically looking to see if there was an adherence to policy and protocol."

Broderick said that the exercise was intended to provide training for the police helicopter unit, that the dive team was involved and that Stecco was "a role player." Police said about 15 people participated, including some from the Fairfax fire department and the police marine patrol.

Stecco was wearing a "dry suit" when the exercise began at 1:30 p.m., and he was in the water, not in a boat, when last seen, Officer Eddy Azcarate said. He said Stecco had water rescue training in the military before he became a police officer but he did not know details of Stecco's military service.

Soon after Stecco disappeared, police placed a tracking beacon in the water to see how the tides would carry it. The beacon exited Pohick Bay and then the larger Gunston Cove and wound up across the Potomac River near the Maryland shoreline in Charles County, Azcarate said.

Fairfax police sent a ground search and rescue team to Charles County in hopes that Stecco would turn up there. The team found nothing, and the search ended in late afternoon, Broderick said.

The U.S. Coast Guard helped police coordinate a grid-based search of the bay, using boats from various agencies and helicopters. Divers could be seen standing in three to five feet of water near the shorelines, moving slowly in tandem, trying to find Stecco.

A dry suit is different from a wet suit in that it is bulkier and insulated, and is designed to keep the person inside dry. Steven M. Barsky, a diving accident investigator in Santa Barbara, Calif., said the suits have light boots attached, latex seals at the wrists and neck to keep water out, and a waterproof zipper.

If used properly, Barsky said, the suits should have a small amount of air inside that allows the person to move or turn in any direction. But if the suit gets too much air inside, it can cause the person to flip upside down, and "you can have a problem if you haven't been trained to deal with recovery from an inverted position," he said.

Barsky said he did not know the specifics of the Fairfax case and did not want to comment on it.

According to a recent article in the Scranton Times-Tribune, Stecco is the son of John J. and Lorraine Stecco of Throop, Pa., outside Scranton, where John Stecco served as mayor for 16 years after a 25-year career in the Air Force. John Stecco died in August.

Details of Frank Stecco's career were not fully available. He has served as a patrol officer in the Mount Vernon station, where he was assigned when he shot and killed a man armed with a knife who was menacing him in 1993. In 1997, Stecco was awarded the Bronze Medal of Valor by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, given for "acts involving unusual risk" beyond the standard officer's responsibilities, but details of that incident were not available yesterday.

In 2000, Stecco received a Certificate of Valor from the Chamber of Commerce for his actions in an episode in January 1999. Police were called to a Springfield motel for a report of a man with a knife trying to commit suicide. A psychiatrist arrived, and Stecco followed him into the room. The man had a knife and a razor blade and was bleeding profusely, according to the Valor Awards report.

When the man asked for a drink of water, Stecco approached with a cup. As the man took the cup, Stecco swept the knife and razor blade away and then helped subdue the man.