Spy’s ‘Safe House’ Believed to Be Country Estate in Virginia

He said the house--his “safe house”--was 22 miles west of Fredericksburg at a place called Coventry. He said it was on 500 acres, with a lake.

The clues dropped by KGB spymaster Vitaly Yurchenko led reporters to just such a place. Neighbors pointed out a house that might have been the one where CIA agents debriefed the Soviet intelligence official who now is going home.

A fishing pole rests against the back wall, an easy stroll from the lake. The lawn is manicured, the paint fresh, the barbecue grill brushed clean. The garden hose is still full of water--but there is no one there.

CIA officials aren’t saying whether the house is theirs. But the home, essentially in the middle of nowhere, fits Yurchenko’s description of the estate where he says he was drugged and tortured before making good his escape.

The property’s absentee owner, who lives near Washington, isn’t saying whether this was the house used by the CIA.

The Coventry subdivision is, in fact, about 22 miles west of Fredericksburg, and about 90 minutes from Washington. The mailing address is Bealeton, seven miles east. The size of the entire subdivision is 500 acres.

Lynn Leahy, an owner in the Coventry subdivision, says neither she nor her husband, Robert, noticed anything unusual going on in the development, except that “a lot of lights were on” at the house late Saturday--the day Yurchenko said he escaped.