A Maryland man is behind bars after his girlfriend was discovered beaten to death and haphazardly hidden inside her own apartment.
According to a press release issued by the Prince George’s County Police Department, Michael McClanahan, 38, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder, as well as a charge “related to attempting to dispose of a body.”
On April 24, police were asked to conduct a welfare check at the couple’s home on Ewing Avenue in Suitland, a medium-sized census-designated place and suburb of Washington, DC.
Inside, officers discovered Sherron Turner, 44, who had died.
“Her body was wrapped in plastic and partially covered in concrete,” the police department stated in a press release. “The Homicide Unit was notified and assumed the investigation into her death.”
An autopsy on April 26 determined Turner’s death to be a homicide caused by blunt force trauma. Investigators quickly identified McClanahan as a suspect in the crime and issued an arrest warrant.
Meanwhile, before the autopsy was completed, the defendant was arrested for a completely different reason: allegedly stabbing a man while being arrested at a Walmart Supercenter on Georgia Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., according to local ABC affiliate WJLA.
In an 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 handcuffed, according to police.
Details about the alleged murder are currently scarce. Turner’s death was classified as a “Domestic-Related Murder” by authorities, but no motive was identified. In a 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 more information on this story, but received no response as of publication.
Turner was a mother, and her family had considered her missing in the hours before her body was discovered, according to Law&Crime’s review of social media posts. The funeral for the victim will take place in the small town of Exmore, Virginia, during the first week of May.
The defendant is currently being held in D.C.’s Central Detention Facility while awaiting extradition to the Old Line State.
The murder case against McClanahan does not currently have a public docket entry in the Maryland court system. A review of that system, however, reveals a large number of criminal cases against a man named “Michael Terrance McClanahan” dating back to 2010.
