Body on Metro Tracks Identified

Autopsy shows blunt force trauma to upper body

Metro has identified a man who was found dead on the tracks near Rockville Metro Station early Saturday morning as a 37-year-old Gaithersburg pharmaceutical researcher named Benoy Chacko. 

Chacko's body was discovered approximately 200 yards north of the Rockville station shortly after 3:07 a.m. Saturday by Metro workers.

According to the Washington Examiner, Metro now believes that Chacko may have been fatally struck by a train or other piece of equipment after an autopsy showed that the victim died of blunt force trauma to his upper body. Investigators initially believed that Chacko had died of other causes because his body didn't have obvious injuries.

It is still not clear how Chacko wound up on the tracks that night. Metro spokesman Dan Stessel told the Examiner that Chacko's farecard showed him boarding the system at Shady Grove station earlier Friday evening. Chacko then exited at Dupont Circle, where he later reentered the system. But his farecard shows he never exited at a faregate.

Stessel raised the possibility that the victim got off at the wrong station and decided to walk along the tracks. The last Metro train toward Shady Grove would have passed through the Rockville station at 3:36 a.m. Saturday.

Investigators are reviewing video footage from the Metro system and are awaiting the results of toxicology tests.

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