Mother seeks answers after TSA lawyer found dead inside car in DC

WASHINGTON - A lawyer for the Transportation Security Administration mysteriously turned up dead in a stranger's car over the weekend in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington D.C.

D.C. police are calling this is a death investigation, but Daniel Potucek's mother said there are things that doesn't add up.

Surveillance cameras at a restaurant in the 800 block of Florida Avenue may have captured the last moments of Potucek being alive.

"Then he was in that car from the time of closing until they found him at 7 or 7:20 [a.m.]," said Lorinda Potucek, the victim's mother.

It was at roughly 7:30 a.m. Saturday when police discovered Potucek's body in the passenger's seat of a Mazda SUV. The car belongs to a Northwest D.C. man who said he has never met the victim.

He did not want to be identified, but told FOX 5 he parked his vehicle last Friday night just a block away from the corner of Florida Avenue and 8th Street when he went to dinner at Hazel. Instead of driving home, he took Lyft and planned to return for his car the next morning while out on a jog.

Potucek's mother is still trying to understand why her son would seek out a random car.

"As of this point, we are told that there were no personal items on him when they found him in the car," she said.

Lorinda Potucek is at a loss as to what happened to her son. She said he graduated from Georgetown Preparatory School in Maryland and had degrees from Duke University and Harvard University. He was recently an attorney for the TSA.

"Anyone who saw Daniel at any of the clubs, bars or restaurants at any time, we are just hoping that somebody gives us as much information so that we can retrace his steps that night," Potucek's mother said.

The investigation into Potucek's death continues pending the outcome of an autopsy.