A 46-year-old woman is dead after her boyfriend stabbed her in a parking lot during a dispute, Anne Arundel County Police said.
Charlotta Lynn Barkley died at Baltimore Washington Medical Center (BWMC). Police said she had been stabbed multiple times with some type of sharp or pointed weapon.
At around 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, police were called to the 7800 block of Tall Pines Court in Glen Burnie for a domestic incident. When officers arrived they located the crime scene but no victims.
"While they secured that crime scene, we received a call from a local hospital and they advised that they had two females that were at the hospital that appeared to be suffering from some type of wounds from an assault. They described them as some type of punctures and scratches from some type of sharp pointed object," said Anne Arundel County Police Lt. Ryan Frashure.
Barkley was treated for life threatening wounds, but died around 2:15 a.m., police said. Another woman was injured when she tried to intervene. She suffered injures to her hand and was released from the hospital.
Through witness interviews and evidence collected at the crime scene, police identified Barkley's on-and-off again boyfriend Michael Wilson, 42, as the suspect.
"They were arguing back and forth and it escalated quickly. That's when he grabbed some type of a weapon and started assaulting the victim," Lt. Frashure said.
Wilson fled the scene on foot. Through an extensive search using patrols, a helicopter, and K-9 units, police located Wilson around 8:45 a.m. Sunday morning in the 7800 block of Crain Highway South.
He is charged with multiple counts of murder, assault, reckless endangerment.
Evon Henson lives in the same building as the victim and knew the couple. She said she didn't see any signs of abusive behavior.
"I'm still in shock, everybody in the building is talking about and is shock because we would've never thought nothing like that would happen," Henson said.
According to experts, abusers can be charming to other people, but there are red flags that victims should be aware of.
"He's controlling her activities, he's extremely jealous, he tells her she's ugly, fat, and stupid, he tells her no one else will have her, he controls the money, things like that. Those are the warning signs I really worry about," said Dorothy Lennig, director of the legal clinic for House of Ruth, a crisis center and resource for victims of domestic abuse.
Lennig helps victims understands their legal options such as pressing criminal charges or obtaining a protective order. Court orders are designed to keep victims safe, but sadly it wasn't enough to protect Gladys Tordil, another Maryland woman who was killed last week. She was fatally shot by her estranged husband, Eulalio Tordil, who she had a protective order against.
"That case is an example of changing the conversation. Here's a woman that recognized she was being abused, separated from her husband, got a protective order, the court did what it was supposed to do, it issued the protective order, and ordered him to surrender his firearms, and he still shot her. So, now's the time to turn the conversation from what can she do differently to how are we going to get men to stop beating up women," Lennig said.
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