A man was found dead Wednesday morning in Dale City.

The body of 60-year-old George Dwight Doughty was found at a homeless encampment behind Ashdale Plaza on Dale Boulevard.

Police said his death appears to be medical-related, but had no further information.

Doughty had lived in the woods for at least the past three years, after a stint at the Volunteers of America Chesapeake Hilda Barg Homeless Prevention Center in Woodbridge.

He stayed there for three months in 2008, prior to Christmas, during a time when he underwent multiple surgeries, said the center’s director Gayle Sanders.

Doughty’s camp, situated near another nearby homeless encampment where last year a man was shot in the ear, was considered one of the safer encampments because of his efforts.

“He made that camp a safe place to be, and he was a kind ,man whom everyone liked, and who was very good-humored,” said Sanders.

Doughty had been in the area since at least 1998.

In 2008, he received his first federal Social Security payments, but the money wasn’t enough for him to able to find a room to rent, said Sanders.

Some of the homeless encampments in Dale City sit on the approved site of the American Wartime Museum.

If constructed, it would sit behind the K-Mart on Dale Boulevard, just off Interstate 95.

Museum officials say exhibits will focus on conflicts from the 20th and 21st centuries, including World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

When the Prince William County Board of Supervisors approved the location for the museum in the fall, some residents who live nearby the site said the museum would bring excessive noise to the area and force property values in the area to drop.

Uriah Kiser is the senior producer of PotomacLocal.com, covering Virginia’s Potomac Communities in Fairfax, Stafford and Woodbridge.

By: Uriah Kiser

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