Ursula Haberland

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is brushing the dust off an 11-year-old murder, conducting door-to-door interviews and checkpoints in the next few weeks trying to find new leads to solve her case.

Ursula Haberland, 81, was found murdered inside her Upperville home on Aug. 23, 2001.

The Cold Case Unit of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help with the investigation of Haberland’s death. “Detectives with the Cold Case Unit believe that there is outstanding information which could be the key to solving this senseless act of violence,” said Loudoun Sheriff Mike Chapman in a prepared statement.

Haberland’s cold case is one of 17 the unit is working on.

Detectives are seeking information from anyone who came into contact with Haberland in the weeks prior to her death in 2001. Over the next few weeks, Loudoun detectives will be conducting door-to-door interviews with neighbors and traffic information checkpoints near Haberland’s home in the 21700 block of Greengarden Road.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit at 703-777-0475. Callers wishing to remain anonymous are asked to call Loudoun Crime Solvers at 703-777-1919 or toll free at 1-877-777-1931.

Chapman implemented a cold case initiative upon taking office, and announced its start last month at a Child Victim Awareness Day in honor of another victim, 14-year-old Erica Smith.

Smith was found dead in a grave along Broad Run Creek close to an old pump house in Ashburn near the intersection of Beaumeade Circle and Loudoun County Parkway – 11 days after leaving her home on July 29, 2002, to see a friend.

“I established [the unit] because with as busy as detectives are, they get so busy on the present cases and then it’s hard to go back. As soon as they want to go back they get tied up on another case,” Chapman said during the Child Victim Awareness Day “… It give us a chance to stop, focus and really get working on it.”

For more information on the Haberland case and for case updates, or to submit a tip online, visit http://www.loudoun.gov/coldcase For t.he Smith case, visit http://www.loudoun.gov/ericasmith.