A University Park man has been charged with murder in the death of a missing teacher who was last seen more than a month ago, police in Prince George’s County, Maryland, say.
In a news conference Friday afternoon, Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz said that 33-year-old Harold Francis Landon III has been charged with murder in the death of 59-year-old Mariame Toure Sylla, who taught third grade at the Dora Kennedy French Immersion School in Greenbelt.
Sylla, also referred to as “Madame Sylla” by her students, never returned home after one of her regular walks in Prince George’s County’s Schrom Hills Park on July 29, police said.
It wasn’t until human remains found in Clinton were determined to be Sylla’s that police were able to identify Landon as a suspect.
The gruesome details
Human remains found atop rocks near a pond in the 7300 block of Old Alexandria Ferry Road in Clinton on Aug. 1 were decapitated at the collar, missing a neck and head, and bilaterally amputated at both knees and shoulders, charging documents for Landon said.
An autopsy was performed the following day, and although the final results are still pending, the Prince George’s County Police Department DNA Lab said Sylla’s blood is consistent with blood from the dismembered remains.
Landon’s residence was searched on Aug. 31, police said, where officers found several power tools, including a reciprocating saw that appeared consistent with Sylla’s decapitation and cutting injuries.
How police located Landon
Charging documents revealed that on July 31, at approximately 9:30 p.m., a witness saw a man in a white pickup truck at the Clinton pond dumping an item where Sylla’s remains would later be found, before cleaning his hands in the pond water. The witness was able to photograph the man and his truck, which Landon later identified as himself during a police interview.
Surveillance footage from the area obtained by police also corroborated the witness’s observations.
Police also said that Landon’s phone records revealed him to have been in the Greenbelt park at the same time Sylla was abducted, and near the Clinton pond at the time her remains had been dumped.
There is no indication that Sylla and Landon knew each other, police said. They are still working to find a motive for the murder and determine where and when Sylla was killed.
Landon had been in police custody since Aug. 1 on an unrelated domestic violence assault charge.
‘A much beloved teacher’
“Miss Sylla was a much beloved teacher and a member of our community a valued member of our community,” Police Chief Aziz said at Friday’s press conference.
Several of Sylla’s students and their parents joined community members at a vigil held for her on Aug. 4, hoping for her safe return.
“She is one of the best teachers I ever knew,” one of Sylla’s former students, Ashton, told WTOP. “She was really kind to all of us.”
The new details about the crime have rocked the community, as well as Sylla’s professional and personal circles, leaving many in shock about the seemingly random nature of the murder.
“She was such an elegant, classy lady. She was a gentle soul,” said Suzanne Wenzel, Vice President of the Prince George’s County Educators’ Association. “I can’t believe it. I’m still in shock.”
“These cases are cases that really do strike at the heart of all of us,” said Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks at Friday’s press conference. “To have a beloved member of our community taken away from us in this way is just so devastating.”
WTOP’s Scott Gelman contributed to this report.
