WASHINGTON — After a 17-year-old boy from Bethesda, Maryland, was found dead in a wooded area over the weekend, Montgomery County police said officers interacted with him the night before he went missing.
Navid Nicholas Sepehri was one of the people officers interacted with when they responded to a report of a party with possible underage drinking and disorderly persons outside a home in the 6500 block of Elgin Lane in Bethesda around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 9.
When officers arrived in the area, they found six people, who they said appeared to be teenage boys, standing in the roadway. Some of them ran away when police approached. Others talked to the officers, and one of them has been identified as Sepehri.
One of the teens told police that there had been a party at a nearby home. When the parents at the residence realized uninvited guests had brought alcohol to the party, they asked everyone to phone for rides and leave. The teens told officers they were waiting for their parents to come and pick them up.
Police said Sepehri may have been under the influence. They confirmed with the other teens that Sepehri would leave at the same time as everyone else.
“Officers determined that there were no applicable criminal or civil charges to be placed against the juveniles they had encountered,” police said in a statement released Tuesday night.
Police then talked to the parents of the home where the party took place. The man confirmed what the teens had stated and believed they had likely heard about the party through social media. Police said there wasn’t an ongoing party when they arrived.
Around 3:23 a.m. Sunday, Sepehri’s father went to police saying his son had not come home Saturday night. He talked to an officer but a missing person report was not taken at that time.
It wasn’t until 12:46 p.m. Sunday that police took a missing person report for Sepehri. His family provided his cellphone information to police, which helped the search.
Just before 5 p.m., police said they found Sepehri dead in a stream in a ravine in the 6500 block of Laverock Lane, near the Bannockburn Swim Club.
“There are additional details of this death investigation that cannot be confirmed at this time,” police said.
Sepehri’s cause and manner of death is still under investigation. At this time, police said there are no signs of foul play involved. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy.
Sepehri was a senior at Walt Whitman High School.
