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Inset: Michael McClanahan (Prince George’s County Police Department). Background: A Walmart in Washington, D.C. (Google Maps).
A Maryland man is behind bars after his girlfriend was found beaten to death and haphazardly hidden inside her own apartment.
Michael McClanahan, 38, stands accused of one count each of murder in the first degree and second-degree murder, as well as a charge “linked to attempting to dispose of” a body, according to a press release issued by the Prince George’s County Police Department.
On April 24, police were asked to perform a welfare check at the couple’s residence on Ewing Avenue in Suitland — a medium-sized census-designated place and suburb of Washington, D.C.
Inside, officers found the victim, Sherron Turner, 44, deceased.
“Her body was wrapped in plastic and partially covered in concrete,” the police department said in the press release. “The Homicide Unit was notified and assumed the investigation into her death.”
On April 26, an autopsy determined Turner’s death was a homicide caused by blunt force trauma. In quick fashion, investigators linked McClanahan to the crime and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Meanwhile, before the autopsy was complete, the defendant was arrested for entirely different reasons — allegedly stabbing a man during an arrest at a Walmart Supercenter on Georgia Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., according to local ABC affiliate WJLA.
In that unrelated incident on April 25, McClanahan was allegedly seen in Walmart surveillance footage “placing objects on his person,” according to a report obtained by the TV station. The alleged stabbing occurred while the defendant was being handcuffed, police say.
Details on the alleged murder are presently scarce. Authorities did not identify a motive for Turner’s slaying but did refer to her death as a “Domestic-Related Murder.” In the press release, authorities referred to the victim as the defendant’s “girlfriend.”
Law&Crime reached out to the Prince George’s County Police Department for additional details on this story, but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.
Turner was a mother and her family considered her missing in the hours prior to the discovery of her body, according to social media posts reviewed by Law&Crime. The victim’s funeral will be held during the first week of May in the small town of Exmore, Virginia.
The defendant is currently being detained in the Central Detention Facility in D.C. while awaiting extradition back to the Old Line State.
There is currently no public docket entry for the murder case against McClanahan in the Maryland court system. A review of that system, however, shows a sizable number of criminal cases against a man identified as “Michael Terrance McClanahan” dating back to 2010.
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