GREENBELT, Md. — The murder of a beloved Greenbelt teacher has family and law enforcement searching for answers to why the apparently random attack took place, and Tuesday, WUSA9 obtained the suspect's charging documents which provide insight into how investigators found their suspect.
Content Warning: The details in this story are graphic and may be disturbing to readers.
Mariame Toure Sylla, 59, was reported missing after she left to take a walk on July 29 and never returned home. She was last seen in a condominium community around 8 p.m. Neighbors say Sylla lived in the community and would always be seen walking.
Police announced Friday that Harold Francis Landon III, 33, of University Park, was arrested and charged with Sylla's murder. There was no indication that the two knew each other.
The documents obtained from the District Court of Maryland for Prince George's County describe in gruesome detail how Sylla's body was found and how police worked to identify Landon as her killer.
Sylla was missing for weeks, but it was just three days after she disappeared that investigators were alerted to a body that was found in another area of Prince George's County.
Around 6:20 p.m. on Aug. 1, police received a 911 call about a body found on the rocks near a pond in the Clinton area. First responders discovered the remains of a person who was decapitated and dismembered.
It was evident to investigators that the victim was a Black woman who did not have any identifying marks like tattoos to assist with identification.
The body was taken to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy that was performed on Aug 2. Investigators say the autopsy concluded the dismemberment was consistent "with a machine cut such as a reciprocating saw."
Investigators who were looking into the woman's remains were made aware of Sylla's disappearance, and they went to her home and collected personal belongings for use in DNA testing. And while the final results of the DNA testing were pending, documents say initial signs pointed to Sylla as being the victim.
A witness interviewed by police reported that on July 31 around 9:30 p.m., they saw a white man in a white pick-up who was at the pond near where the body was found. The witness said the man was carrying something and appeared to dump it in the area where the body was found.
The witness gave police a description of the man, and they took pictures of him, documents say.
While investigators canvassed for more witnesses and surveillance video, they found footage from July 31 of the white pick-up in a parking area adjacent to the pond where the body was found.
"A short time later the vehicle's lights turned off and proceeded on the grass down to the pond area where the Witness described seeing the male removing and carrying an item from the interior of the truck," documents show. "The vehicle then returned to the parking lot near the entrance and stopped for a short period of time."
During this process, investigators identified Landon as a suspect in the case. Landon had already been arrested by the Greenbelt Police Department on Aug. 1 in an unrelated domestic violence case.
Court documents say that Landon tried to stab his ex-girlfriend and her friend. The two were able to get the knife away from Landon and flee. The documents say Landon already had a protective order that forbade him from going near the woman.
That happened the same day Sylla's body was found.
When Landon was arrested, he was seen in a white pick-up that investigators say was the same vehicle seen driving at the pond.
Investigators obtained cellphone records for Landon. They said the records show Landon and Sylla were both in the Schrom Hills Recreation Center on July 29 – the day she vanished – around 7 p.m., an hour before she was last seen.
Investigators say Landon's phone records also placed him at the pond on July 31, the day before Sylla's body was found.
On Aug. 31, investigators searched Landon's residence and recovered several power tools, including a reciprocating saw, which were seized for further analysis.
Landon was then officially arrested as a suspect in Sylla's murder. He was already in custody for the domestic violence case.
Landon is currently charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and disposing of a body in an unauthorized place.