MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Three days after the decomposing body of a pregnant woman was found in a Silver Spring apartment building, Montgomery County prosecutors say they will be seeking justice for the woman and her unborn child.
According to officials, the victim was a 26-year-old woman who was 38 weeks pregnant with a boy the day she was shot to death. She was found Friday when detectives stormed the apartment of a 31-year-old murder suspect, but officials believe her body had been inside the apartment for at least a month.
A swat team was sent to the Enclave building in Silver Spring, Maryland with a no-knock search warrant to arrest Torrey Moore on first-degree murder charges. Police say Moore walked into a gas station on New Hampshire Avenue Thursday evening and got into a fight with 61-year-old Ayalew Wondimu who was working the register. As Wondimu grabbed a pole from behind the counter and attempted to hit his attacker, Moore pulled out a handgun and shot Wondimu in the chest.
When the swat team arrived, police said they found a woman's body in the late stage of decomposition on the floor. The medical examiner's report confirmed she had been shot multiple times, and was eight months pregnant; the fetus was considered viable.
Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones said Moore waived his rights when he was taken into custody and made statements implicating himself in Wondimu's death and telling police he had been in a relationship with the dead pregnant woman. The two allegedly got into an argument a month ago that led to her death.
The woman's identity will not be released publicly until DNA confirms it, according to Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy. He added that the couple had been living together and that no one reported her missing, nor had any neighbors reported gunshots or foul odors coming from the apartment.
Moore had his first court appearance Monday. District Court Judge Victor M. DelPino ordered a mental competency evaluation and instructed that he be held without bail. McCarthy said two new charges of murder would be served to Moore as well.
"The first is for the 26-year-female... [and] there's also a second charge of first degree murder because under a Maryland code, the murder of a viable fetus does carry the potential of a murder charge," he explained. "And we have laid a second murder charge for the homicide related to that boy that she was carrying at the time of her death."
Moore is due back in court Tuesday for a hearing related to the two new charges.