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Julia Birch and Nancy Ann Frankel (Montgomery County State Attorney’s Office )
A 27-year-old woman in Maryland will spend less than two decades behind bars after she admitted to killing her 92-year-old roommate and longtime family friend, strangling the elderly artist inside their shared home before staging the body and spraying it with perfume.
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge John M. Maloney on Thursday sentenced Julia Birch to 40 years in prison but with 23 years of the term suspended in the 2021 slaying of Nancy Ann Frankel, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Birch pleaded guilty in March to one count of second-degree for strangling Frankel. Birch must also serve five years of supervised probation when she’s released and complete 240 hours of community service.
Officers with the Montgomery County Police Department and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue personnel responded to a home at about 8:20 a.m. on July 28, 2021, in Kensington, Maryland, on a call of a possible homicide. Once there, first responders said Birch immediately admitted to killing Frankel.
Authorities said the evidence recovered from the scene of the crime matched the story Birch relayed to police about what she did to Frankel.
According to a report from Washington, D.C. CBS affiliate WUSA, Birch told investigators she first tried to suffocate Frankel, a longtime family friend, by placing and holding a plastic bag over the victim’s head.
But when Frankel poked a hole in the bag with her finger, Birch said she forced her to the ground and strangled her.
After killing Frankel, a then-26-year-old Birch called 911 and admitted to the slaying. She also staged Frankel’s body to make it appear more “presentable,” folding her roommate’s arms across her chest, placing a pillow under her head, and spraying the remains with perfume, Montgomery County Media reported.
Birch reportedly said she tried to place Frankel’s body onto her bed but could not lift her remains.
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An autopsy determined that Frankel’s death was a homicide caused by asphyxiation, officials said.
After being examined by a state doctor, authorities said Birch was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. The doctor reportedly determined Birch was experiencing psychotic symptoms when she killed Frankel but emphasized that she “still understood murder was wrong and could control her conduct to conform to the law.”
After her death, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime that Frankel was a local sculptor of renown who practiced her craft over seven decades.
The Katzen Arts Center at American University put on an exhibition in 2019 called “Nancy at Ninety.”
“This retrospective of seven decades of the work of Washington, D.C. sculptor Nancy Frankel will celebrate her ninetieth birthday in 2019. Working in various media since the 1950s — including wood, Plexiglas, Hydrocal, design cast, and steel — Frankel has explored a fundamentally geometric vocabulary, with moments of whimsy, the title of one of the works in this show,” read a description of the event. “In addition to her freestanding works in three dimensions, a few of her many graphite drawings and tempera paintings will be represented, as well as a large wall relief.”
Frankel also made an appearance on a panel to discuss her work.
Frankel’s online resume shows that she had been active for decades in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia.
“I use ‘organic geometry’ to give form to my love of nature and architecture. Space, either encapsulated or activated, and a sense of balance, precarious yet centered, are integral to my work,” reads a statement from Frankel about her work.
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