Missing Dacara Thompson Confirmed Dead After Surveillance Footage Captured Encounter — and a Suspect Is in Custody By Janelle Griffith 160

A body found in a grassy area off a Maryland road has been identified as missing 19-year-old Dacara Thompson, who vanished from Prince George’s County two weeks ago.

A 35-year-old man is now in custody in connection with her death.

Hugo Hernandez-Mendez, of Bowie, Md., has been arrested on charges of first- and second-degree murder, the Prince George’s County Police Department announced Friday, Sept. 5. He is being held without bond, police said in a news release.

Chief George Nader said at a news conference Friday that police had interviewed Hernandez-Mendez and had gotten “limited cooperation.”

Thompson’s family reported her missing on Aug. 23, and they found her car in Hyattsville, Md., two days later.

On Aug. 31, Maryland State Police opened a death investigation after a woman’s body was found in a grassy area off Route 50 in Anne Arundel County, police said. That body has been identified as Thompson’s. She lived in Lanham, a Washington D.C. suburb.

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Nader said surveillance video shows Thompson getting into a black SUV driven by Hernandez-Mendez at about 3 a.m. on Aug. 23 in Hyattsville, near where police later found her car. The reason she entered the vehicle remains under investigation.

Detectives were able to track the vehicle’s movement to an address on Kembridge Drive in Bowie, Nader said.

A subsequent search of the home on Thursday turned up evidence suggesting Thompson had allegedly been murdered in Hernandez-Mendez’s bedroom in the residence, Nader said, adding that police believe he took Thompson’s body to the location where it was recovered. The news release said Hernandez-Mendez had access to the SUV.

Officials said Friday that Hernandez-Mendez was living in the U.S. without legal status. He was arrested by the U.S. Park Police in April on a DUI charge and released by federal authorities pending trial. It’s not clear whether he has retained an attorney.

Thompson’s cause of death has not been determined, but initial findings and evidence suggest the manner will be ruled a homicide, police said. Detectives are working to determine whether she and Hernandez-Mendez were known to each other prior to Aug. 23.

Thompson was a graduate of St. Charles High School in Waldorf, and had been living with her father and working at a nonprofit as part of a service program for recent graduates, Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy said at Friday’s news conference.

“This is a young woman who dedicated part of her young life to serving others, to serving others, and I want that to bring home to all of you that this is a good, good, good young woman who wanted to do good for her community, and now her community will stand behind her family as we seek justice for her,” Braveboy said.