Man found dead on Metro train started day as usual

Rickey Jay Van Houter left his Rockville home at 9:45 a.m. Monday as he did many weekdays, driving to the Twinbrook Metro station before boarding a Red Line train to his government contracting job as a computer programmer.

He had been up late the night before on a deadline for work, his family said, but they noticed nothing unusual Sunday as he helped his wife water her flowers in the back yard and hung a new American flag from their front porch.

But Van Houter, 52, never made it to work. About 7 p.m., his wife, Ilene, said she got a call on her cellphone. It was a Metro Transit Police detective. He was waiting at her home. Ilene Van Houter said that she didn't ask what it was about but that she knew something was terribly wrong.

Her husband of 29 years had been found dead, slumped over in a Metro train seat, five hours after boarding. A train operator discovered him at 2:55 p.m., almost three hours after the train had been taken out of service and just before it left the Shady Grove rail yard for the evening rush.

Because they are Orthodox Jews, Ilene Van Houter said, no autopsy will be conducted. Metro officials have said Van Houter apparently died of natural causes.

Ilene Van Houter, 52, declined to discuss the circumstances of her husband's death or any health problems he may have had. She commended the "very kind" Metro detective who broke the news but said she otherwise didn't want to talk about Metro's actions.

"We don't know what happened," she said late Wednesday afternoon, holding her palms faceup in her living room.

With her were their sons, Andrew Van Houter, 23, of New Jersey and Jake Van Houter, 26, of Brooklyn, and daughter-in-law, Samantha Van Houter, 23, of New Jersey. It being the Jewish holy day of Shavuot, she said, they were not answering the phone or using computers.

She said she hadn't heard the day's developments: that two train operators had been put on administrative leave while Metro investigated why her husband's death went unnoticed for so long.

Both operators were back at work Wednesday afternoon after they passed drug and alcohol tests and Metro officials determined they had not violated any procedures, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.

Sources said the man, whom Metro officials declined to identify, was found slumped over in a seat a dozen rows behind the operator's cab.

"It's a shame no one reported it," said Metro's interim general manager, Richard Sarles. "If there's a message I could get out to riders, it's if you see something that doesn't look right, report it while the trains are going."

Sarles said operators are now required to walk through every car of trains brought into a rail yard at the end of the line to ensure no one is left onboard.

Ilene Van Houter said their family moved to Rockville 14 years ago for her husband's job. She declined to name his employer.

He was actively involved in the Ezras Israel congregation in Rockville and helped raise $500,000 for Israeli merchants who lost business when tourism to Israel dropped during the Second Intifada, she said.

Van Houter, a speech-language pathologist for the Montgomery County public schools, said family members and friends will sit shiva after her husband's funeral Friday.

She looked out back, where her numerous flowerpots hung from a lattice wall, filling the yard with bright color. She pointed to a flat hose with small holes that her husband had begun to weave throughout the highest pots Sunday so she wouldn't have to strain to water them.

"He was going to finish that up for me on Tuesday," she said, taking a deep breath before adding: "But it's not finished."