Virginia Beach police mishandled case of missing woman who was later found dead, department says

Two Virginia Beach police officers mishandled the case of a woman who went missing in August and was later found dead, according to an internal review by the department.

Marie Covington was reported missing at 10:25 p.m. on Aug. 18 after having last been seen with 43-year-old Gary Morton the previous day. Two days later, she was found dead in Norfolk — hours after an Ashanti Alert was issued.

Morton was arrested following a traffic stop and charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death.

According to a statement from Virginia Beach police, evidence in the case showed that Covington’s murder happened before the department was notified, but the review determined that two officers “failed to meet the Department’s standards and expectations in this incident.”

When the internal investigation was launched, it was to focus on the timeline of initial response, reporting and public notification surrounding the search for Covington.

Detectives investigating Covington’s case believed foul play was involved, and the department requested that state police issue an Ashanti Alert. The alert was issued around 10:45 p.m. Aug. 20 and warned that Covington’s disappearance posed a “credible threat” to her own health and safety, according to previous reporting from The Pilot.

“To have separate, individual breakdowns necessitates the Department determine if there are issues with our current process regarding missing persons, especially when foul play is suspected,” the statement reads. “As a result, Chief (Paul) Neudigate ordered the creation of a Process Improvement Team to assess our current procedure/process for missing persons and recommend changes if warranted.”

Virginia Beach police said the “failures” have been remediated, but did not specify what the failures were.

“We failed to meet the family’s expectations in trying to locate their loved one, which is why I implemented a process improvement team to review our procedures related to missing persons,” Neudigate said in the statement. “It is my expectation that every time we are contacted about a potential missing person where there are specific, articulable facts that indicate one may be at risk, that we respond with the appropriate urgency.”