Prince William Times - 04/04/2024

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SPORTS: Talented Patriot High boys lacrosse team returns 10 starters. PREVIEW, PAGES 22, 23

April 4, 2024 | Vol. 23, No. 14 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | $2.00 Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

Living wild

Olivia LoBalbo’s Gainesville home is a refuge for more than 1,000 hurt, orphaned wild animals a year By Cher Muzyk

Times Staff Writer

Most people share their homes with animals — maybe a dog or two, a cat or even a bunny. One local family is a little different. They share their home with at least 30 wild animals at a time and take in an average of more than 1,000 a year. That’s because Olivia LoBalbo runs a licensed wildlife rescue and rehabilitation facility in her Gainesville home. LoBalbo, 36, is a former veterinarian tech and the founder of “AERO,” which stands for Animal Education and Rescue Organization. It’s a nonprofit that takes in injured, sick or orphaned wild animals that wouldn’t survive without human intervention. LoBalbo’s goal is for every animal to be released back into the wild. “Keep Virginia Wildlife Wild”

is the organization’s slogan. “There’s no animal that really comes in here in good shape,” she said, explaining that even experienced wildlife “rehabbers” have about a 50% success rate. Success is defined as an animal reaching maturity or returning to health and going back into the wild. There are some “really frustrating days,” LoBalbo said. “We end up losing a lot of them.” See WILD, page 4 PHOTO BY DOUG STROUD

Olivia LoBalbo, founder of Animal Education and Rescue Organization, finishes feeding a 5-week-old fox kit in her Gainesville kitchen. During baby animal season, LoBalbo feeds newborn squirrels and opossums every two hours, even overnight.

‘She would help anyone’

Lake Ridge woman killed in domestic incident is remembered as ‘an excellent mom’ By Jill Palermo

Times Staff Writer

COURTESY GOFUNDME

Taty’ana Cooks with the 1-year-old son she shared with Brendon Devon White, who has been charged with her murder. 88 DULLES, VA

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Taty’ana Cooks had ended her relationship with her 1-year-old son’s father but was letting him stay with her and their baby in her Lake Ridge home because he needed a place to live, according to Cooks’ aunt, Cassandra Cooks. “They weren’t together. She was trying to help him out, but he knew he had to find someplace else to live,” Cassandra Cooks said Tuesday. “She was trying to help somebody, and this is what happened.” Taty’ana Cooks, 30, was found dead on Friday,

Update on the controversial Va. 28 bypass, page 3 News

March 22, in a garbage truck that had just picked up trash from a dumpster near the Westridge townhome she bought a few years ago. Police stopped the truck, hoping to find some evidence from Cooks’ home. Instead, they found her body, according to Lt. Jonathan Perok, a Prince William County police spokesman. Brendon Devon White, 28, the father of Taty’ana’s baby son, has since been charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death. Cooks died by strangulation, according to the Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office. Cooks went missing the day before on March 21. When she didn’t pick her baby son up from day care, her family realized something was wrong. They went to her townhouse and found her purse and wallet but not her cellphone or her car, her aunt said. See COOKS, page 6

It’s time for the bluebells, page 9

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