Montgomery County Police Department Curtis Lopez is charged with killing his estranged wife Jane McQuain and her son William McQuain, 11, of Germantown.

More News

Takoma Park police aim to catch fleeing thieves

State chamber: Income tax hike will unfairly hurt Montgomery

Push for Shady Grove arena refueled

Montgomery County executive: Rapid Transit Vehicle system will be built

PSC weighs whether utility customers can reject smart meters

Montgomery prosecutors described “ghastly” killings of a Germantown mother and her son in court Thursday and a judge ruled the man accused of killing them will remain in jail.

Curtis Maurice Lopez, 45, appeared in court via closed-circuit TV but did not speak as Assistant State’s Attorney John Maloney outlined what he called the “ghastly” killings of Jane McQuain, 51, and William McQuain, 11. Lopez is charged with one count of first-degree murder and soon will be charged with a second count, Maloney said.

Judge Barry A. Hamilton ruled Lopez will remain in jail without bail.

Jane McQuain’s body was found by police lying in bed at her apartment at 13100 Briarcliff Terrace on Oct. 12, shortly after friends and co-workers reported she had been missing since Sept. 30. She had been stabbed in her back through the covers and her skull was crushed, likely by a 30-pound weight officers found in the apartment, Maloney said.

“She was found in the corner of her bed with blood all over her,” Maloney said, indicating McQuain was likely killed in her sleep. “There were no defensive wounds whatsoever [on her body].”

William was last seen being picked up from a sleepover at a friend’s house Sept. 30, Maloney said. Witnesses did not see who picked him up, but confirmed William entered McQuain’s car, a black 2011 Honda CRV, when he left, he said.

William’s body was found Oct. 18 off the side of a road in Clarksburg after a six-day search by police. Surveillance footage taken Oct. 1 from a nearby gas station showed Lopez and William together in the store, State’s Attorney John McCarthy said after Lopez’s bond hearing.

“The young man was found about 100 yards away, bludgeoned to death,” McCarthy said. “The bat used to kill him was found nearby.”

Police think it was the same bat Lopez was seen removing from Jane McQuain’s storage unit in the 132000 block of Wisteria Drive in Germantown on a surveillance video taken Oct. 1. William was with Lopez at the storage unit.

The case against Lopez

One of McQuain’s neighbors told police they heard an argument or a woman screaming as they returned home after walking their dog during the week of Oct. 2-7, according to charging documents filed in court.

Other neighbors told police that they saw a black man loitering around the apartment and, on one occasion, enter McQuain’s apartment using a key. Another resident told police they had seen the man drive McQuain’s car to the apartment Oct. 5 and load a TV into the car before driving off, according to the documents.

The witnesses identified a driver’s license photograph of Lopez as the man, police said.

Cell phone records were a key factor in breaking the case, Maloney and McCarthy said. Lopez told police he recently had been in Maryland when detectives called his cell phone early in the case, the documents state. Lopez told officers he was in New Jersey on Oct. 12, but his signal was tracked to North Carolina.

Detectives also traced cell phone signals for Jane McQuain and William to North Carolina at the same time, Maloney said. Another break occurred Oct. 12 when police in Charlotte responded to a traffic accident involving McQuain’s car.

Phone records revealed Lopez had been sending pictures of McQuain’s car to his girlfriend in North Carolina in the weeks before the McQuains went missing. He and his girlfriend had discussed getting a new car and Lopez told her he was travelling to Maryland to buy the car, Maloney said.

Lopez was arrested on a Maryland warrant by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police on Oct. 13 at a hotel room in North Carolina. He was extradited to the county Wednesday.

Alan Drew, Lopez’s defense attorney, acknowledged the evidence turned up in the police investigation, but argued his client could not be directly linked to the crime.

“What we have is essentially circumstantial evidence,” Drew told Hamilton.

But Lopez’s criminal history swayed Hamilton’s decision to keep him in jail.

Lopez served 13 years in jail in Pennsylvania and Delaware for charges ranging including murder, robbery, rape and drug distribution, according to police.

“It’s an incomplete investigation so far, but what is there is compelling enough [to hold him],” Hamilton added.

McCarthy acknowledged the lack of precise details in the case and explained that forensic analysis and DNA comparisons take time to develop. McCarthy did not refute the possibility that prosecutors could seek a death sentence for Lopez if he is found guilty.

“No decision has been made [yet],” he said. “As we stand here today, we’re not even sure this qualifies. … We have to wait and see what the investigation reveals.”

jarias@gazette.net