More than two decades ago, a man named John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo went on a nationwide killing spree that ended in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Over the course of three weeks, the pair shot and killed 10 people and wounded three others in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C.
“It was a very terrifying time,” Aisha Braveboy, now County Executive of Prince George’s County, Maryland, told Dateline.
So when Irina Hans, a 26-year-old staying in D.C. for an internship, was shot and killed on October 12, 2002, it was quickly assumed she could be another victim of the D.C. snipers.
“I think that’s where our minds went at the time because it seemed so random. And those sniper attacks were random,” Braveboy said. “So it just seemed that this was the M.O. of the snipers and that she was a victim.”
Sergeant Greg McDonald of the Prince George’s County Police Department worked on Irina’s case back in 2002. “Every pattern from the other D.C. sniper victims fit her initially,” he told Dateline.
McDonald learned Irina had spent the evening at a concert. And then, while on her way home, she was shot once in the head. “Appeared she was walking from the nearest Metro station,” he said. It was the Branch Avenue station. There was no sign of a struggle. “It appears that she didn’t see it coming,” he said. “She fell right when she was struck.”
Irina’s body was found by a patrol officer canvassing the area. She was clutching a can of mace. McDonald told Dateline there was no sign of a robbery. Her cash, credit cards, and driver’s license were all still in her backpack.
Investigators needed to notify Irina’s loved ones of the tragic shooting. They learned she was married to Jason Hans, a young professor who lived in Missouri. “We had the local police department, um, in Missouri, respond to his address and make the death notification for us,” McDonald said. “That’s something we don’t -- do not want to do over a telephone.”
When two police officers knocked on his door in the early hours of the morning, Jason Hans never imagined they were there about Irina. “I was like, there must be something going on in the building or something, I don’t know,” Jason said. He told Dateline he’d missed a call from his wife earlier that evening because he’d fallen asleep watching football.
Jason says that after the officers broke the news that Irina had been murdered, they brought friends of his over to provide comfort and assistance, but there was little to be found. “The next several days were just -- you know, just traumatic,” Jason remembered.
Jason and Irina had been married for five years before her death, but had been living apart while Irina was in D.C. for her internship. He was a budding academic with an interest in family studies and human development, and she was an art history student from Ukraine with dreams of becoming a museum curator.
They both had recently received master’s degrees in their respective fields from the University of Missouri. They managed to get by with what Jason called “not a lot of money.”
Shortly before her death, Irina had been awarded a $5,000 scholarship, which would have allowed her to search for better housing and leave what Jason described as the “not-so-safe neighborhood” where she’d been staying. Irina’s body was found 250 yards from the home she’d been planning to leave.
Jason says he had discussed the D.C. sniper case with his mother just a few days before Irina’s murder, and it did occur to him that she might have been another victim. However, “it’s a big city,” he said. “We weren’t really focused on that.
That theory was quickly put to bed by authorities. Sergeant McDonald listed the reasons why: “The caliber, the weapon, and um, the M.O.,” he said. While Irina’s killing appeared to be random, like the sniper killings. But, as Sgt. McDonald told Dateline the sniper killers were different. “They wanted their victims to be found, so they were gonna do it in public.” Irina was shot around 11 p.m. on an isolated road. “Nobody around, nobody to see it. This wouldn’t draw — instill fear in the community.”
There were no eyewitnesses to Irina’s shooting. “The only witness we have is what we call an ear witness. And that is a neighbor who heard a gunshot prior to her being found,” McDonald said. “Now you gotta go recalibrate, start looking at things, your -- your victim history,” he said.
Authorities learned that three weeks before the murder, Irina had been approached by a man in her neighborhood who tried to ask her out — an experience which made her very uncomfortable. “This highly alarmed her,” McDonald said.
“We located other, um, females in the neighborhood -- this neighborhood, that stated that same person would approach everybody -- every female in the neighborhood trying to get their number,” he said. “They never said he was violent or anything. He was just approaching women in -- in the area, you know, trying to date them.” The man is considered a person of interest, but authorities were never able to identify him.
There were few other leads to follow. “The victim had no history that would, um -- that we would concentrate on,” McDonald told Dateline. “She had no history -- or any criminal activity involved in her life that we could focus on… No issue with people. She’s what we call a true -- true victim.”
Investigators had to consider whether Irina’s husband had something to do with her murder. But he was in Missouri when she was killed. “He was never considered a suspect. Of course, we did our due diligence,” McDonald said. “Did background investigation on him to see if anything in his, um, life could lead to her death.” They never uncovered anything that supported his involvement.
According to Sgt. McDonald, 24 years after Irina’s murder, investigators still have very little to go on — no DNA or fingerprints to work with. He says if someone comes forward, it could make all the difference. “Somebody always knows something,” he said. “For every crime, there’s always an individual that knows something.”
Jason Hans told Dateline he still thinks about his wife every time he hears of decades-old cases finally being solved. He said he has had dreams where he questions Irina’s murderer about what led them to kill. “And I was sitting across the table from them,” Jason said. “And I didn’t really know what to say or do. And I just said, ‘Why? What -- what got you to this point that you were willing to do this?’” He still hopes to find out what happened to Irina all these years later.
Related: Dateline learned about Irina’s case while working on the episode “The Bluegrass Mystery,” which is available to watch now on Peacock and the NBC app.
County Executive Aisha Braveboy says Irina’s case is not “cold” by any means. “Here in Prince George’s County, we really don’t consider cases to be cold cases,” Braveboy told Dateline. “We consider them -- them to be unsolved cases.”
She is confident the team of investigators working on Irina’s case will be able to find answers. “Every case deserves to be solved,” Braveboy said. “I do believe a case like this can be solved, that we can get justice, and we’ll do everything in our power to get justice for Irina and her family.”
If you have any information, now is the time to come forward. “If you remember anything, no matter how insignificant you might think it is, it’s something that could actually help us solve this case,” Braveboy stressed. “So please come forward.” You can contact the Prince George’s County Crime Solvers Tip line at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).
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