Almost a year after the deadly townhome fire on Riptide Square, the murder scene is being demolished and cleaned up, much to the relief of residents in the Lowes Island neighborhood of Sterling, Virginia.
A demolition crew, hired by Loudoun County, is tearing down the home at 20701 Riptide Square, where Jacob Bogatin and his girlfriend Valeria Gunkova lived until shortly before the Oct. 24, 2025 fire.
Bogatin was convicted in September of murder and arson, for setting the fire that killed neighbor Madelaine Akers.
Akers’ home and another damaged townhome were removed within weeks of the arson set by Bogatin.
As early as January 2026, neighbors described to WTOP their frustration at the slow pace of the cleanup. Last month, neighbor Patty Williams launched a Change.org petition, calling for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to clean up the fire site before the Oct. 24 anniversary of the fire that killed Akers.
Tuesday morning, Williams was pleased to see the burned-out skeleton of Bogatin’s home finally being ripped down, and loaded into dumpsters.
“It’s been heartbreaking to see this, because it reminds us all the time what happened here,” Williams told WTOP.
This summer, the Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance that allowed the county to clean-up the property if the owner did not. The county hired S-Works Construction, based in Leesburg, to do the demolition, with an an estimated cost of $71,000, which the county can recover under a lien.
“I think the county did a very noble and courageous thing,” Williams said. “They put a lien on that — so the owner of the property, in order to sell it and rebuild it has to pay the lien.”
Algonkian Supervisor Juli Briskman told WTOP in a statement, “This was a team effort to respond to ongoing and justified community concerns about the unsightly and unsafe carcass of a town house that was the subject of bankruptcy and an arson case. And a daily reminder that selfish actions resulted in a tragic loss of life of one of our community members.”
Briskman, working with the county attorney’s office, was able to initiate the demolition ordinance of the structure.
“I am immensely grateful that the community can now move forward in its healing process,” Briskman said.
With the daily reminder of the death and destruction nearing an end, “We are hoping that in the next three or four months we see beautiful homes here and new trees,” Williams said.
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