HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — A room cleaner made the grim discovery.
Ruth Naomi Thorp, a young mother from Catonsville living in Glen Burnie, was strangled to death at the Econolodge off Route One in Elkridge in April 1982.
"Ruth Thorp was a young mother, she had a very young daughter at the time of her death. Ruth was actually going back to school, to get her GED," said Tech Cpl. Wade Zufall with the Howard County Police Department.
Zufall, who has worked Thorp's case since 2019, identified Albert Jacob Hartje, Jr. as a suspect in her murder.
Hartje, who died in 2021, is also suspected in the murder of Laney Lee McGadney, who was found dead in Columbia a few weeks earlier in March 1982.
"If he was alive today, we would be arresting him and charging him with the murders of not only Laney Lee McGadney, but also of Ruth Thorp as well," Zufall said.
Howard County police are pursuing new leads in the murder of Thorp, 21, and are sharing case details first with WMAR-2 News as they seek out a second suspect.
Hartje was born and raised in New Jersey, and his family moved to Riverdale, MD. He held several jobs over the years, including work in concrete and with a traveling carnival. He had a Columbia, Maryland address, but relocated to New York City in 1983, where police arrested him for two robberies. After serving time until 1994, he eventually settled in Virginia.
Investigators believe Hartje did not act alone in both cases.
"We've gone through all the evidence in the Ruth Thorp case, and there still is physical evidence that is involved in Ruth Thorp's murder that does not come back to Albert Hartje Jr. So there is one more person that's out there that we believe is complicit in this murder," Zufall said.
Police are now seeking help from anyone who may have worked with Hartje or seen him in social circles to help match evidence with the right person, as Thorp's surviving family still awaits full closure.
"There's a lot of hope. She still has family members alive, her mother is still alive and her brother is still alive. I talk to them probably about once a month, we do check in. There is hope with the family," Zufall said.
The reward for information in Thorp's case, as with all other Howard County cold cases, is up to $30,000.
Anyone with information can call 410-313-STOP or email Howard County Police at hcpdcrimetips@howardcountymd.gov.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
