After nearly four years of looking for clues, tracking down leads and searching for suspects, Howard County police detectives believe they?ve finally got their man.
Howard County police arrested on Tuesday a Baltimore man, Marc Colin Ward, 36, on charges of first-degree and second-degree murder for a 2002 Columbia homicide.
Police said Edwin Rudolph Aytes, 49, was shot to death Sept. 27, 2002, in the stairwell of a Columbia apartment complex in the village of Oakland Mills on the 9600 block of White Acre Road.
Howard County police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said she could not discuss the information that led to the break in the investigation.
“Because this case is pending prosecution, there are specific details that we can not release at this time,” she said.
Early in the investigation, police said they discovered Aytes? cell phone at the scene of his death and later determined that the phone?s last incoming call had been from a number registered to Ward.
Witnesses also reported seeing a two-tone green Chevrolet Tahoe leaving the scene of the shooting and provided police with a partial tag number, which matched the description of a vehicle operated by Ward, police said.
In mid-2004, Ward was convicted on federal narcotics charges, police said.
Howard County police recently executed numerous search and seizure warrants, which recovered evidence helpful to them in the case. County police took Ward into custody from federal prison Tuesday, police said.
Wayne Kirwan, spokesman for Howard County State?s Attorney Timothy McCrone, said the arrest is evidence of the intense focus local police have put on the community of Oakland Mills, which community leaders say is experiencing a revitalization.
“The police have made great strides in Oakland Mills, and I know this case has been a thorn in their side that they?ve wanted to bring to conclusion,” Kirwan said.
At a glance
Edwin Rudolph Aytes? death was one of seven homicides in Howard County in 2002. The county also had seven homicides in 2003, one in 2004, five in 2005 and one in 2006.
? Source: Howard County Police Department
