A 27-year-old convicted child sex offender from Harford County faces murder and arson charges in North Carolina after he was caught on camera setting a car on fire outside of Winston-Salem, N.C., according to police.
The body of a 63-year-old North Carolina woman was found in the burned out car.
Scott Robert Speakman was convicted of raping an 18-month-old child in 1995 and released from prison in June but failed to register, as required, as a convicted sex offender with the Harford County Sheriff?s Office.
“About two weeks after [Speakman] failed to register, we had a sighting of him in Virginia, but we were not able to confirm that,” said Bob Thomas, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff?s Office. “We had quite a bit of trouble locating him after he failed to register.”
Authorities in North Carolina charged Speakman with “burning personal property,” marijuana possession and murder on Friday after a surveillance camera caught footage of Speakman setting a vehicle on fire, said Capt. Brad Stanley, a spokesman for the Forsyth County Sheriff?s Office.
Forsyth County sheriff?s deputies called to the scene shortly before 5 a.m. Thursday found the body of Loyola Manola Strader, 63, of Winston-Salem.
“Initially, he gave us a false name of Max Nietzshe,” Stanley said. Police traced the vehicle back to Strader?s residence and found Speakman there.
Police were able to properly identify Speakman through his fingerprints.
An initial autopsy report indicated that Strader was strangled and beaten to death, Stanley said.
Stanley said Speakman was believed to have been staying with Strader for several days before the incident, arriving in Winston-Salem earlier in the week; however, Stanley could not comment on the nature of the relationship between Speakman and Strader.
He said they were not related.
Speakman is being held at the Forsyth County Detention Center on no bond.
After Speakman, a former resident of Edgewood, failed to register with the Sheriff?s Office, a warrant for his arrest was issued on June 15, according to court records.
Thomas said the charges Speakman is facing in North Carolina would take “priority over him coming back here for failing to register.”
Thomas said it would be up to Harford County State?s Attorney Joseph Cassilly to decide if Speakman will be extradited for the offense.
