Police wait for ballistics testing in death of teen

Rhett Goldizen

STEPHENSON — Frederick County sheriff’s deputies continue the search for two men who were allegedly involved in the shooting of a local teen.

Although no new details have emerged in the case, Capt. Allen Sibert said Wednesday that the investigation continues.

“We’re still waiting on ballistics and forensics testing to come back,” he said.

Rhett Goldizen — a 17-year-old James Wood High School student — was killed overnight Oct. 17 after an alleged exchange of gunfire between his father, Steve Goldizen, and two unknown men at his home.

According to a Frederick County Sheriff’s Office media release at the time, Goldizen reported having an altercation with the two men at his front door just after midnight in the 200 block of Monastery Ridge Road, near Jordan Springs.

Sibert previously said that Goldizen’s doorbell rang sometime around midnight, and because of the hour, he went to the door armed.

He was allegedly met by two men — whom he told police he did not know and had never seen before — who claimed they had a problem with their vehicle and that it was possibly broken down.

It was then that Goldizen allegedly saw that one of the men was armed with a shotgun and there was an exchange of gunfire.

The homeowner told deputies that the armed subject fired his weapon, and that he fired his as well, according to the release.

Goldizen then realized that his son had been fatally wounded and called 911.

The teen died at the scene, Sibert said.

It still is unclear if Rhett Goldizen was inside or outside the home when he was shot. It also remains unclear who fired the fatal shot.

The alleged perpetrators fled the scene in a large sport utility vehicle, possibly a Ford, and have yet to be arrested, according to Sibert.

He previously said that investigators believe that somebody in the Goldizen family was targeted, but that they still are following up on every lead.

Steve Goldizen was employed as a deputy and later as an investigator for the Warren County Sheriff’s Office from August 1990 to July 2011, when he retired, according to a spokesperson at that office.

The perpetrators are described as white males in their 20s. One was described as being 5 feet, 11 inches with a beard and mustache. The other man was said to have brown hair, a mustache and a beard.

The color of the vehicle the two men left in is unknown, according to the report.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Investigator K.C. Bohrer at the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, 540-662-6162, or Crime Solvers at 540-665-8477.

— Contact Melissa Boughton at mboughton@winchesterstar.com