I always thought I should put this to paper but never had and I'm sure as I type this more memories of the case will come to me. This case had an unbelievable amount of twists and a combination of really good police work and a allot of luck which to this day makes me wonder, was it just luck?
This is a completely true story.
Chapter 1, The Crime
It was September 17, 1990. I had just returned to work from a vacation in Ocean City, MD. and was ending my first night of 3-11 shift. I cut out maybe 10 minutes early and received a page while driving across I-695. My partner at the time Stanley Harmon paged to let me know we picked up a homicide call at a motel in the 5800 blk Rt. 40 West in the Woodlawn Precinct.
When I arrived Stan and I began the investigation. A white female 29 years of age was found in an entrance hallway just inside of a rear entrance to a wing of the motel. She was lying on her back, there was an apparent gunshot wound to the center of her chest and a box of text books scattered on the floor. There was a single black hair consistent with that of an African-American visible on the victim's shirt. We learned shortly that Ms. Brown was a college text book salesperson and was in town from her home in Philadelphia to visit with some college clients. She had checked into her room at 8:00pm and was found dead approx. 10:30pm. Her pocketbook was missing so we began the investigation with the belief she was the victim of a robbery. The only "witness" to the murder said she heard a young white girl say, "Oh my God, Oh my God".
I spoke with the victim's mother, Jean, and fiancee, Chuck, both of whom lived in Philly.
It's hard enough to make a death notification but to have to do it by telephone is a unusually cold way to do it. We had a local Philadelphia officer respond to their house and have him stand by as her mother called me.
They gave us the back story and also assisted with providing information regarding Valerie's credit cards and such.
I also spoke with a friend of Valerie, a local girl named Marie. Marie had tried phoning Valerie at the motel around 10:00pm and when she didn't get an answer she called the desk. The attendant went to Valerie's room and found her in the nearby hallway. Marie said that Valerie had met her out for a few drinks after she arrived in town and left her to go back to the motel.
An autopsy was conducted the next morning and it revealed that Ms. Brown had been shot once with a .32 caliber pistol. The bullet pierced her spinal cord which caused her to drop instantly when shot.
Early in the morning we cancelled her cards and flagged them so that any transactions occurring with her credit cards would immediately be reported to us. Within a day or so we received information that Valerie's credit cards were used at a few gas stations in the general area of Woodlawn and in Baltimore city. We went out to interview the employees working at the times the cards were used. It was learned that the person using the card was a black female wearing a fluorescent green jacket who would purchase a few gallons of gas and a carton of Newport cigarettes using the stolen card. Most of the attendees didn't remember the female using the card but one described her very well and another wrote the tag number of her vehicle on his copy of the receipt. He noticed the vehicle was a dark mini-van and had dealer tag, 1A29581, which he found odd so he decided to make a note of it. (Luck #1) The tag was found to be reported stolen from a car dealership located right next to the murder scene. I researched all the previous thefts from the dealership and also obtained a list of all employees. One employee named "Wesley" who worked the lot as a car wash jockey would come into play later. Also at the time of a recovery of a previously stolen vehicle from the dealer, a prescription bottle was found with a name and address from Radecke Ave. in the Garden Village area of northeast Baltimore at the County line. This too would come into play. (Luck #2)
A few days after the murder I was working overtime and Stanley and I split up to follow up on some different aspects of the investigation. I thought I would head out to Garden Village to speak with the owner of the prescription bottle found in the previously recovered stolen vehicle from the car dealership. As these things often turn out, the woman no longer lived at the address on Radecke Ave. and there was no other address on file for her. I drove a few blocks away to the Cedonia Mall parking lot and wrote up some notes and kicked back for a few minutes to relax.
When investigating a homicide we basically work 24 to 36 straight hours and then work 16 to 18 hour days until exhausting all leads. Sometimes a 15 minute power nap or at least an extended coffee break is in order.
While sitting at the Cedonia Mall lot I started to think about my days working the Parkville precinct which handled the county area of Garden Village. This neighborhood was a bit of a problem area. Garden Village was in both Baltimore county and Baltimore city and in order to get from one section of the county to another section of the county you had to drive through an alley by the basketball courts and transverse a section which was in Baltimore city.
Just for the heck of it I decided to drive that route I remembered. It had been 5 years since I was around here and I thought I'd look around. I drove through the section of the county and into the city. I was driving along a road which had a upcoming curve to the right. I glanced at a mini-van parked along the curb and noticed it displayed a dealer tag. A closer look revealed the tag 1A29581, the tag wanted in the murder of Valerie Brown. (Luck #3) I also noticed a female in the driver seat wearing a green florescent jacket. I quickly went around the block and came back to a spot where I could watch the van. I originally had no idea what road I was on but saw I was on Schering Road as I came back around. I immediately called in the troops. As it turned out I was in Baltimore city so they were called to assist. Being in an unmarked car the suspect had no idea I was there so I had the city police set up out of sight on both ends of the street. I waited what seemed like forever for my backups to arrive. The homicide office was 30 minutes away but at least the uniformed city guys were nearby. From the distance I could see the brake lights light up on the van indicating that someone was hitting the pedal on occasion but the vehicle didn't move. I couldn't see if anyone else was around the vehicle due to my limited visibility.
This bit of "luck" has to be defined a little clearer. I was in the general vicinity of this neighborhood only because a pill bottle was found in a recovered vehicle from a past crime that really had nothing to do with this case. This was one of those follow-up investigations which 99% of the time leads to absolutely nowhere. This also led to nowhere but did at least put me in the area. My driving down this road where the murder vehicle was located was by absolute dumb luck. I should not have been there, should have been on my way back to the office, but for reasons unknown to me I decided to goof off a little and ride around a neighborhood I hadn't been in for 5 years. A neighborhood that I never liked anyway and as it turns out I was driving in the city believing I was still in the county. This was one of those moments where you have to think, "maybe there is a God". Certainly the odds of me being at this place at this time, by accident, is astounding. As it turned out the mini-van had been at that place for the first time and I showed up within a few hours.
A few minutes went by and some members of the county career criminal unit showed up. One of them sat with a city officer so that we all were now in communication with each other.
After a total of maybe 15 minutes the van began to pull away. I got up to the rear bumper and as we got to the end of the block we stopped the vehicle. The vehicle was driven by "Donna" who was wearing the florescent jacket and she was accompanied by her mother and younger siblings. She related that her mother was in the process of moving that day into a house on Starleigh Rd.
We asked and received permission to search the house. Donna's boyfriend "Rowland" was in the house at the time of the search. Nothing of evidentary value was found in the house. Donna and Rowland lived elsewhere so none of their personal property was there.
Still Donna and Rowland possessed a stolen vehicle and tag. That's all I told them at this point, didn't mention the murder just yet. They had some splainin' to do.
We drove them to the Whitemarsh precinct to begin their interrogations. These would lead to another series of twists.
Next chapter: The Investigation
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