Virginia Lawyers Weekly

WASHINGTON– A coat and several identification cards found outside a Washington, D.C., Naval base on Jan. 21 belonged to a government attorney who disappeared nearly a month ago.

Joyce Chiang, 28, an attorney for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, has not been seen since a friend dropped her off in downtown Washington on the evening of Jan. 9. She was headed to a nearby coffee shop.

“When Miss Chiang was last seen, she was wearing a hooded thigh-length green jacket,” said Susan Lloyd, spokeswoman for the Washington Field Office of the FBI. Friends confirmed that the coat found in a traffic circle near an entrance to the Anacostia Naval Station belonged to Chiang.

Officials also found a glove and keys in that location, but authorities have not determined if they were hers, Lloyd said.

Chiang’s INS identification card was found by passersby in the same area the day after she disappeared, but earlier reports indicated it had been found elsewhere. FBI agents and Metropolitan Police officers searched the area and a nearby parking lot after learning about the inaccuracy of the earlier reports. Police divers also dredged the Anacostia River and used dogs sensitive to the smell of human remains in the area near the river.

Investigators found no additional evidence related to Chiang’s disappearance, but divers pulled an unidentified man’s body from the river. The remains were sent to the D.C. medical examiner’s office to determine a cause of death and identity.

Chiang worked as a staff attorney in the agency’s Office of General Counsel since June 1995, said Don Mueller, a spokesman for the INS. Her primary assignment focused on implementation of the Immigration Act of 1996.

The FBI, INS and Chiang’s friends are offering a $45,000 reward for information in the case. Chiang’s coworkers and friends were planning a march and candlelight vigil late last month at the site where she was last seen.

“We’re holding out hope, and we’ve passed out hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of flyers looking for information,” said Mueller.

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