A 62-year-old tourist from the Netherlands was found face-down in a Manassas-area creek on September 28, 1999, just 11 days after he had entered the United States through Atlanta. Police did not know his name at the time. It would take a composite sketch, a distinctive brand of underwear, and a television broadcast an ocean away to finally identify him as Johannes Anthonius DeHart — and more than two decades later, his killer has never been found.
A Body Found Behind a Manassas Home
DeHart's body turned up behind 9325 Mace St. in Manassas, according to police, face-down in the low water of the creek, as reported by The Washington Post. An autopsy determined he died from blunt-force trauma, and investigators have treated the case as a murder ever since. At the time he was found, nobody knew who he was.
Working the case with almost nothing to go on, investigators created a composite of the unidentified man in hopes that someone, somewhere, might recognize him. The break came from an unlikely detail: the brand of underwear DeHart was wearing when he died, combined with a sketch that ran on television in the Netherlands, according to FOX 5 DC. Those two threads eventually led investigators to a name, an address, and a trail that stretched back across the Atlantic.
A Trail That Led to Atlanta, South Carolina and Holland
Once DeHart was identified, detectives worked to retrace his final days in the country. He had entered the United States through Atlanta on September 17, 1999, and somehow made his way roughly 600 miles to Manassas before he was killed. Investigators followed leads to hotels in Atlanta and South Carolina, and even reached back to DeHart's home in Holland searching for anyone who might explain what happened, per the Post's reporting.
Despite that legwork, the fundamental questions were never answered. Investigators still don't know who killed the man and why, FOX 5 DC reported — a gap that has persisted for more than two decades. Prince William County police have never publicly named a suspect or a motive in the case.
One of Three Unsolved Killings That Year
DeHart's death was counted among Prince William County's three unsolved homicides from the prior year, according to the Post's reporting a year after the killing. That grim tally underscored how, even in a single suburban Washington county, a case involving a foreign visitor with no known local ties could stall out with no leads to follow.
Prince William County police have continued trying to solve DeHart's murder since 1999, and the department publicized his face again in 2026 in a renewed push for tips, according to Daily Voice. Anyone with information is asked to contact Prince William County police at (703) 792-7000, or to submit a tip through the department's website.
