Hugo Hernandez-Mendez, is charged with first- and second-degree murder

Published by RawNews1st

Police said 19-year-old Dacara Thompson left her father’s home in Lanham, Maryland and said she was going to put gas in her car. The car was found two days later with her purse inside. Her phone was gone and disabled.

On August 31, Thompson’s body was found off Route 50 in Anne Arundel County, Prince George’s County police confirmed. Her family reported her missing the day after she disappeared.

The suspect, Hugo Hernandez-Mendez, is charged with first- and second-degree murder, Prince George’s County Police Chief George Nader said.

Hernandez-Mendez is in police custody and being held without bond. Police spoke with Hernandez-Mendez and got limited cooperation.

Surveillance video shows Thompson approach a black SUV early on August 23, speak to the driver and get inside at about 3 a.m.

“For reasons still under investigation, it appears that Dacara willfully entered a vehicle being driven by the suspect,” Nader said.

The driver of the SUV went to a home in the 12000 block of Kembridge Drive in Bowie. Detectives searched the home on Thursday and found evidence that Thompson was killed in Hernandez-Mendez’s bedroom in that home.

Hernandez-Mendez took Thompson’s body to the location where it was found more than a week after the murder.

He also had access to the black SUV that Thompson entered.

Thompson’s cause of death has not been determined, but the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is expected to rule her death a homicide.

The investigation is still active, and police are investigating whether Thompson and Hernandez-Mendez knew each other before she was killed.