The stepdaughter of former Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm was found strangled in back of a West Baltimore row home alley early Friday morning, sources close to the former commissioner told The Examiner.
The body of 38-year-old Nicole Sesker was discovered under the balcony of a home in the 3900 block Garrison Avenue at 5:30 a.m. Police officials said they suspect foul play and the death has been ruled a homicide.
Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld personally delivered the news to Hamm Friday morning.
Hamm, now the director of Public Safety at Coppin State University, did not immediately return phone calls left at the school.
Sesker’s struggle with drug addiction made national news after a story in 2005 broke in the New York Times recounted the personal toll on Hamm, who was the police commisioner at the time.
“When she gets sick and tired of being sick and tired, I’ll be there for her,” Hamm told the Times. “She’s not there yet.”
Hamm told the Times that “a person has to be ready to change” to kick addiction. He said he rejected her demands for money because he said she would use the money to buy drugs.
In the article Sesker seemed to understand her stepfather?s position. “I know he loves me and that when I need him he’ll be there,” Sesker told The Times. “I love my family that much that I wouldn’t move in with them and require them to go through the struggle with me.”
For years Sesker continued to struggle with addiction court records show. Last year, Sesker was convicted of one count of prostitution and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. In 2002, she pleaded guilty to drug possession and was given a month behind bars. In 1999, she was convicted to drug possession with the intent to distribute and given a suspended sentence.
Amid a rising murder rate, Hamm stepped down from the commissioner’s job last July at the request of Mayor Sheila Dixon. He was replaced by Frederick Bealefeld.
Sesker?s homicide pushes the number of murders in the city to 104 this year, compared to 153 during the same period last year.
