Maryland homicide victim is found under concrete, police say

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A woman’s body was found wrapped in plastic and partially covered in concrete, and a man has been charged in the killing, Prince George’s County police said Monday.

Police said Michael McClanahan, 38, of Suitland, Maryland, has been charged in what they described as the “domestic-related” killing of Sherron Turner, 44, also of Suitland. They described her as his girlfriend.

Based on the police account, the discovery of Turner’s body appeared to be a dramatic example of what authorities have described as the persistence of domestic-related violence in Prince George’s. The county police chief has called particular attention to the issue.

As if to underscore the problem, the report about Turner’s death came on the day the police reported another homicide in the county, which they also described as “domestic-related.”

They said 36-year-old Neri Moreno Gratini of Suitland was found dead early Monday. They said a man under investigation in her killing was taken to a hospital with what they said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Gratini was found about 2 a.m. Monday in a house in the 3900 block of Bexley Place in Suitland. She had been shot and died on the scene, police said. The man who police said had the self-inflicted wound was not named. His injuries were life-threatening, police said.

Police said the matter remained under investigation.

In the case from last week, police said officers made a welfare check Thursday at the Ewing Avenue apartment where Turner’s body was found. When discovered, it was “wrapped in plastic and partially covered in concrete,” police said in a statement.

An autopsy determined Saturday that Turner was the victim of a homicide, police said. She died of an injury caused by blunt force, the autopsy found.

An arrest warrant charging McClanahan was obtained by detectives, according to police. They said he was being held in the District on another matter. He was charged in the Prince George’s warrant with murder and with an offense connected to trying to dispose of a body.

He is awaiting extradition, police said.

In describing the victim’s death as domestic-related, police indicated that they considered it part of a class of crime that is declining but continues to cause problems. Data showed that about 1 in 5 of the homicides investigated in the county last year appeared to be domestic in nature.

“Violent crime and domestic violence must stop,” Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz said at a news conference this year. He spoke around the time of what was said to be yet another apparently domestic-related homicide.

In that case, as in the one from last week, the discovery of the body of the alleged victim had a grisly aspect. Police said her body was found in January in a duplex behind fresh drywall.

She had been shot, police said. An arrest has been made, authorities said.