True crime cases in Maryland

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• Credit: Woodlawn High School·Editorial use·SourceSOLVEDListen

  Leakin Park, Baltimore, Maryland · 1999

  Murder of Hae Min Lee

  Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old Baltimore County high school student, was strangled and found buried in Leakin Park in February 1999. Her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was convicted of first-degree murder in 2000; the case gained international attention after the 2014 podcast Serial, and Syed's conviction underwent multiple vacaturs, appeals, and reinstatements through 2025.

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  Belvedere Hotel, Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Maryland, United States · 2006

  Death of Rey Rivera

  Rey Rivera, a Baltimore writer and videographer, went missing on May 16, 2006, after receiving a phone call and rushing from his home; his badly injured body was found eight days later in a room beneath a hole in a low roof of the Belvedere Hotel. Baltimore Police ruled the death a probable suicide, but the medical examiner listed the manner of death as undetermined, and the case remains disputed.

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• Credit: VOA·Public domain·SourceSOLVEDListen

  Gilmor Homes, Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore, Maryland · 2015

  Killing of Freddie Gray

  Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, died on April 19, 2015, a week after sustaining a fatal spinal injury while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department, an event that triggered mass protests and the criminal prosecution of six officers, all of whom were acquitted or had charges dropped.

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• Credit: Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA·CC BY 2.0·SourceSOLVEDListen

  Curtis Bay and Yale Heights neighborhoods, Baltimore, Maryland · 2021

  Murders of Keona Holley and Justin Johnson

  In December 2021, Baltimore Police Officer Keona Holley and civilian Justin Johnson were fatally shot 90 minutes apart in separate Baltimore neighborhoods by the same two men, Elliot Knox and Travon Shaw, who were later convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

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• Credit: CCTV footage·Public domain·SourceSOLVEDListen

  Former Capital Gazette offices, 888 Bestgate Road, Parole (near Annapolis), Maryland · 2018

  Capital Gazette shooting

  On June 28, 2018, Jarrod Ramos shot and killed five employees and injured two others at the Capital Gazette newspaper offices in Annapolis, Maryland, in an attack motivated by a years-long grudge over a 2011 harassment article. A jury found him criminally responsible in July 2021, and he was sentenced to five life terms plus 345 years.

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  Baltimore, Maryland (body recovered from the Susquehanna River near the Conowingo Dam) · 2010

  Killing of Phylicia Barnes

  Phylicia Barnes, a 16-year-old honor student from North Carolina visiting relatives in Baltimore, disappeared on December 28, 2010. Her body was recovered from the Susquehanna River in April 2011 and her death was ruled a homicide. A suspect was tried three times; all charges were ultimately dismissed or resulted in acquittal, and the case remains legally unresolved.

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  Rite Aid distribution center, Aberdeen, Maryland · 2018

  2018 Aberdeen, Maryland, shooting

  On September 20, 2018, a temporary worker shot and killed three co-workers at a Rite Aid distribution center in Aberdeen, Maryland, before fatally shooting herself.

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  Joppatowne, Maryland, United States · 2012

  Killing of Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie

  Ghanaian graduate student Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie was killed in Joppatowne, Maryland in 2012, allegedly by Alexander Kinyua, who was later found incompetent to stand trial due to paranoid schizophrenia and committed to a Maryland mental institution.

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