VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — An internal review of the handling of a missing person case found failures within the Virginia Beach Police Dept.
Virginia State Police issued a critically missing adult alert, or "Ashanti Alert," for Marie Darshaun Covington back in August. According to Virginia Beach police, the 40-year-old was found dead in Norfolk just two days after her family reported her missing.
Gary Morton, 43, was arrested and charged with Covington's death.
Roughly four months after her death, VBPD said an internal review found two of its officers "failed to meet the department’s standards and expectations" in the incident.
As a result, Chief Paul Neudigate created the "Process Improvement Team" to help assess the department's procedures in missing person cases.
However, VBPD also said that evidence points to the murder happening before the department was notified.
You can read the department's full statement below:
The Virginia Beach Police Department (VBPD) has finished its internal review regarding the handling of the Marie Covington missing person case. The review began with the time we received the first 911 call until charges were obtained for Gary Morton by the Norfolk Police Department. All evidence points to Ms. Covington’s murder happening before the VPBD were notified. However, the review determined that two of our officers failed to meet the Department’s standards and expectations in this incident. These failures, at different points in the case, have been remediated, to include scheduled retraining where applicable.
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. As a result, Chief Neudigate ordered the creation of a Process Improvement Team to assess our current procedure/process for missing persons and recommend changes if warranted.
“Our thoughts go out to the Covington family as they continue to grieve,” said Chief Paul Neudigate. “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. 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.”