The Aberdeen Police Department announced on Thursday, Jan. 19 that a 17-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of Kayla Hamilton in the afternoon of July 27, 2022.
According to police, on the day of the murder, officers were called to a home in the unit block of East Inca Street in Aberdeen to investigate the death of a woman who had gone into cardiac arrest.
Hamilton’s death was ruled by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to be a homicide by strangulation.
During the investigation, police say that detectives learned from Hamilton’s family that she was autistic and had recently moved to Aberdeen with her 22-year-old boyfriend.
Early in the investigation, an undocumented non-citizen from El Salvador was identified as a main suspect in the murder, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that he was listed in El Salvador as a member of MS-13.
Police say that the suspect’s DNA was a match for evidence that was recovered at the crime scene by Maryland State Police investigators, and a warrant for the teen’s arrest was issued late last week for first-degree murder.
He was arrested in Edgewood without incident and is being held without bail at the Harford County Detention Center. No return court date has been announced.
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