A U.S. Marine on leave to his home in Montgomery County was charged Wednesday with fatally stabbing his father on Christmas Day after first telling police that they were attacked by a gang.
David Coleman Winters, 18, is being held in the death late Tuesday of Andrew Robert Winters, 55, a North Potomac architect, officials said.
Police began their investigation after the younger Winters showed up at the Shady Grove Hospital in Rockville at about 10:35 p.m. Tuesday. Winters needed medical treatment for cuts to his fingers and hands.
He told authorities that he and his father were walking in the area of the 11000 block of Darnestown Road in North Potomac when they were jumped by five or six men, police said.
The son told authorities he fled but he did not know what happened to his father.
The officers noticed that the blood on the teenager’s clothing didn’t match his injury or his story, police said.
Police searched the wooded area near Rockville using a K-9 unit and a Maryland State Police helicopter. At about 11:45 p.m., authorities found the father’s body in the area of Muddy Branch Park.
The father had suffered multiple stab wounds.
Police found no evidence that the father and son had been attacked by strangers.
Investigators have not established a motive for the stabbing, Cpl. Jimmy Robinson said. Nor did they know what the father and son were doing in the woods.
“There might be only two people who know at this point, and one of them is deceased,” Robinson said.
Winters had recently joined the U.S. Marine Corps and was home on leave at the time of the killing, according to Marine Corps headquarters spokesman Maj. Eric Dent.
The youth joined the Marines in August and was a private, Dent said. Last week, Winters reported to his new command at Camp LeJeune, N.C. He was expected to appear in court for a bail hearing today.
