The 18-year-old apprehended while driving the missing Jeep Cherokee of a slain American University professor is a ward of the city’s juvenile justice agency.
Accounting professor Sue Ann Marcum was found dead in her Bethesda home Monday, and Montgomery County police are investigating the case as a homicide. Deandrew Hamlin, arrested after he crashed the woman’s vehicle, is being investigated for a possible connection to her death.
Hamlin has been a ward of the District’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services since March 2009, when he was convicted on destruction of property charges, sources with knowledge of his case told The Washington Examiner.
It was not immediately clear whether Hamlin had absconded from juvenile detention, or had been placed in a residential facility as part of his rehabilitation. A DYRS spokesman declined to comment on Hamlin.
So far this year, at least a dozen DYRS wards have been charged with murder, including three suspects in the shooting death of District middle school principal Brian Betts. At least a half-dozen others have been killed this year.
An electronic license plate reader detected Hamlin, of Northwest D.C., driving Marcum’s vehicle on the 2800 block of Benning Road NE at about midnight, said Officer Istmania Bonilla, a Metropolitan Police Department representative.
Police tried to stop the vehicle, and Hamlin fled. He was arrested after he crashed the Jeep into a crosswalk signal pole near New Jersey Avenue and M Street NW, Bonilla said.
He has been charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle and felony fleeing. Hamlin was taken to an area hospital after complaining of back and neck pain.
Cpl. Dan Friz, a Montgomery County police spokesman, said police have interviewed Hamlin. Friz said he could not say whether Hamlin would be charged in connection with Marcum’s death.
Police said there were signs of forced entry and a struggle at Marcum’s home on the 6200 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW. Police would not describe the nature of the trauma to Marcum’s body.
Friz would not say if anything besides the Jeep was taken from Marcum’s house.
Her body has been transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy.
A friend found Marcum’s body in the home, where she lived alone, shortly before 11 a.m. Monday and called police.
Marcum had been an accounting professor at American’s Kogod School of Business since 1999.
The university said Tuesday that a campus service in her honor was being planned, but further details were not available.
Students have created a memorial page on Facebook, where dozens have recalled her sense of humor and dedication to teaching.
Anyone with information about Marcum’s death is asked to call police at 240-773-5070. Tipsters can also call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County at 866-411-TIPS (8477).
