Baltimore Police Charge Raymont Hopewell With Five Murders of Mostly Elderly Residents Since 1999
A phone call one victim made to her son shortly before she was killed helped police identify Hopewell, who was already jailed in another killing.
Published
Lydia Wingfield's last call to her son named a man who called himself "Money." On December 19, 2005, Baltimore police said that man, Raymont Hopewell, had been charged with five murders of mostly elderly residents.
Hopewell, 34, a drifter with a lengthy criminal record, was charged with five counts of murder in killings in West and Northwest Baltimore and with five counts of attempted murder from two home invasions in September. Police said the victims were Constance Willis, 60, found dead in her home on February 22, 1999; Sarah Shannon, 88, found at the Greenhill Apartments on November 30, 2002; Sadie L. Mack, 78, found in her home on May 27, 2005; Carlton Crawford, 82, found on August 21, 2005, at an apartment building for the disabled; and Wingfield, 78, found in her home on August 31, 2005. Hopewell had once listed the Greenhill Apartments as his home address. "He should get the fullest extent of the law," said Wingfield's son.
Police had arrested Hopewell on September 20 in Crawford's death, but they said Wingfield's killing broke the case open. On the day she died, she called her son to say that a man who called himself "Money" had come to her door, claiming to have grown up with him. A friend told the son that the nickname belonged to Hopewell. Police said that call, DNA and other forensic evidence linked Hopewell to the killings, and the homicide commander, Maj. Richard Fahlteich, said police had "absolutely, positively indisputable evidence" that he was the sole suspect. In August 2006, Hopewell pleaded guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court to five murders, four rapes and other crimes.
Sources
- Drifter charged in 5 city killings, The Baltimore Sun
- The week that was, The Baltimore Sun