Police say the investigation into Carmen Lizet Puch’s death moved from a Great Falls parking lot to the Herndon workplace she shared with the accused.
GREAT FALLS, Va. — The first public facts were spare: A woman had been found outside a car near several hiking trails, she was dead when officers arrived, and Fairfax County police did not believe the attack appeared random. From that parking area, investigators worked backward through the final hours of Carmen Lizet Puch’s life and eventually focused on the restaurant where she worked with the teenager now charged with her killing.
Puch, 42, of Reston, was discovered on the morning of Aug. 17 in a parking area in the 8800 block of Georgetown Pike near Difficult Run Park. A person out for a run saw her near a 2011 Honda Civic and contacted authorities. Police recorded the response at 6:43 a.m. Officers found Puch with injuries to her upper body and pronounced her dead. Her car was registered to her. At that stage, detectives had not publicly identified a suspect, established an exact time of death or explained why she had been at the trail parking area.
That changed quickly. Detectives learned that Puch worked at a restaurant in Herndon with Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos, then 19. Police Chief Kevin Davis later said the two had an intimate relationship and had intentionally arranged to meet in the Great Falls area. The workplace became a critical part of the investigation because police said cameras there captured Cedillos-Campos before the meeting. According to Davis, the footage showed him with a fixed-blade knife, black latex gloves and a water bottle as he prepared to leave.
The importance of those objects became clearer as investigators developed the case. Police said Cedillos-Campos emptied the water bottle and filled it with gasoline taken from his motorcycle. At Difficult Run, authorities allege, Puch was stabbed multiple times and gasoline was poured on her. Davis said there was also an unsuccessful attempt to ignite it. Investigators later recovered black gloves and an empty bottle carrying the odor of gasoline, according to reports describing the police documents. Those items, coupled with the video from the restaurant, gave detectives evidence spanning both the workplace and the scene where Puch was found.
Investigators also began assembling a communications timeline. Later reporting on a criminal complaint said phone records supported an early-morning call between Puch and Cedillos-Campos. A witness told detectives that the conversation, heard at about 1:30 a.m., involved arrangements for the two to meet. That account gave investigators another point between Cedillos-Campos’ departure from work and the discovery of Puch several hours later. Police have said the meeting was intentional, but details about what Puch understood about its purpose have not been publicly established.
The witness supplied another allegation that later became central to reporting about a possible motive. According to accounts of the complaint, the witness told police that Puch had sent screenshots concerning her relationship with Cedillos-Campos to his girlfriend. The witness said Cedillos-Campos was angry and announced that he intended to kill Puch. Those statements are allegations, not proven facts. When police first announced the arrest in August, Davis said investigators were still examining multiple layers of the relationship and had not presented a settled public explanation for the motive.
A further alleged communication came after the meeting. The witness told investigators that Cedillos-Campos called at about 4 a.m. and said he had done it before hanging up, according to reporting on the complaint. The witness took the remark to mean Puch had been killed. That allegation later became part of a broader collection of evidence that included the witness’s account, call records, workplace video and physical items found in the parking area. How much of that evidence ultimately would be admitted or challenged in court is a separate question from what investigators relied on while building the charge.
The medical investigation provided another important piece. A preliminary autopsy conducted Aug. 18 found that Puch died from multiple sharp-force injuries and classified the death as a homicide, according to police-document reporting. Authorities had already concluded at the scene that her death warranted a homicide investigation. The autopsy helped clarify the cause after the initial police announcement referred more generally to trauma to her upper body. Professional news accounts have avoided unnecessary anatomical detail because the central facts can be reported without graphic description.
By Aug. 19, detectives had moved from an unidentified suspect investigation to an arrest operation in Maryland. Fairfax County police said its Fugitive Tracking and Apprehension Team worked with Prince George’s County police and the U.S. Marshals Service to locate Cedillos-Campos in Lanham. He was taken into custody and accused of second-degree murder. The Fairfax County Police Department initially said he was being held in Prince George’s County while awaiting transfer in connection with the Virginia case.
Police then disclosed that Cedillos-Campos was speaking with homicide investigators. At an Aug. 19 news conference, Davis said the teenager was providing what the chief described as a full confession. That statement was made by police during an active investigation and does not replace the court process. A defendant’s reported statements can be examined for admissibility and context as a case proceeds, and the second-degree murder charge itself remains an accusation unless established through a guilty plea or conviction.
The investigation also transformed the public understanding of the location where Puch was found. On the morning of Aug. 17, the gravel parking area was simply a crime scene near several trails, and police said there was no immediate sign of a random attack. Two days later, authorities described it as the location of an intentional meeting between co-workers who knew each other personally. That distinction was important to the investigation because it shifted the focus away from an unknown assailant targeting trail users and toward the victim’s existing connections.
Puch’s life has been less extensively documented in public records than the allegations surrounding her death. Police identified her as a Reston resident and described her as the mother of a young daughter. Davis called her a loving mother while announcing the arrest. The department said victim specialists had been assigned to assist her family. Public accounts differ on whether her daughter was 3 or 4, and the most authoritative police reporting described the child as 3; the discrepancy underscores the need to separate verified official information from details circulated in fundraising material or secondary coverage.
The case now rests not on the first morning’s unanswered questions but on a series of allegations investigators say connect the restaurant, the late-night communications and the park. Prosecutors may ultimately rely on only some of those details, and defense attorneys may dispute their interpretation or admissibility. The court, not the police investigation or public reporting, will determine whether the government can prove the murder charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
Currently,, Cedillos-Campos remains accused of second-degree murder in Puch’s death. The publicly reported record does not establish a final adjudication, and some procedural details have not been reliably released. What began with a runner finding a woman beside her car has become a criminal case built around the hours investigators say preceded that discovery.
Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.