Local National Weather Sports Shop Scripps Watch Now
InvestigatorsMaryland Cold Cases

Actions

A decade without answers in beloved church member's murder

Who killed Willard Rykowski?
Posted
and last updated
Who killed Willard Rykowski?
Willard Rykowski.png

80-year-old Willard Rykowski lived alone, but he was far from lonely.

Willard Rykowski

He was a dedicated member of St. Clement Catholic Church in Lansdowne.

"Because he was tall, he was the fella that always filled up our candles with oil," a deacon told us back in 2014.

Rykowski frequented the Landsdowne Inn.

"He usually came on Monday nights when I had the pot roast, he loved that."

But on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014, he didn't show up for church as expected.

"It was in the afternoon when a couple of parishioners came in and said they had been trying to contact him and he didn't answer his phone. One of them actually went to the house, knocked on the door several times. He didn't answer," the deacon told us at the time.

They called police, asking officers to perform a welfare check.

Police found his body on the living room floor.

He'd been stabbed to death.

"This man has been brutally murdered," police told WMAR-2 News.

His murder left his community in shock.

"To lose somebody that way, it's hard to take," the deacon told us.
"It's just something you don't hear of at your own backyard," a neighbor said.

Baltimore County Police, on its Cold Case page, says it has few leads in this case.

At the time, they were desperate for information.

"We have absolutely nothing. Somebody out there knows who murdered this man. Somebody has information, we just need them to come forward."

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

If you have any information that might help Baltimore County Police, please call at 410-887-3943.