Kyle Alifom, 20, of Vienna pleaded guilty last Monday, Feb. 10, in federal court in connection with the death of a 16-year-old McLean girl.

Charged with tampering with evidence, he admitted that he hid the body of Emylee Lonczak, who died after a heroin overdose. Alifom now faces a possible maximum punishment of 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced May 16.

In a statement of facts filed with his plea, Alifom admitted that, on Aug. 21, 2013, he and three other people – two friends plus Lonczak – drove from Virginia into Washington, D.C., to buy heroin. Each of them then used it via injections from separate hypodermic needles, each containing about 30cc of the narcotic.

"Lonczak, who wasn’t a heroin user, was unable to administer the heroin to herself intravenously because she couldn’t find a vein," the document stated. So the person who’d made the drug buy "injected her."

They then headed back to Virginia and, during the drive, Alifom and the others noticed Lonczak was unconscious. They dropped off the drug buyer at his home and the other friend dropped off Alifom and Lonczak, who remained unconscious, at Alifom’s home in Vienna.

According to the statement, Alifom and the friend placed Lonczak in a bed in a basement bedroom and the friend left. The following morning, Alifom discovered that Lonczak had died.

According to his statement, Alifom "dragged Lonczak’s body through the grass behind his residence to an area of shrubbery behind a neighbor’s house. [He] covered [her] body with an abandoned screen window in an attempt to conceal [it]."

Meanwhile, the teen had been reported missing, Aug. 21, when she failed to return home. Using a bloodhound, Fairfax County police discovered Lonczak's body, Aug. 23, 2013, after the dog tracked her scent to a wooded area. An autopsy and toxicology report confirmed she had a fatal level of heroin in her system and that heroin use had caused her death.

The statement concluded that Alifom’s actions in connection with this tragedy were, "in all respects, knowing and deliberate." Now that he’s been convicted, he’s scheduled for sentencing May 16 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria before Judge Claude M. Hilton.

This case was investigated by the Fairfax County police and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Ben’Ary, formerly a commonweath’s attorney in Fairfax County, is the prosecutor.

Dana J. Boente, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District

of Virginia; Karl C. Colder, Special Agent in Charge for the DEA’s Washington Field Division; and Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. made the official announcement of Alifom’s guilty plea.