They broke in sometime overnight. Baltimore County Police say a pair of crooks forced their way in through an open window of a ground floor apartment in Parkville.
“It may have been a situation where the suspect was walking along trying different windows, attempting to see if one was open," said Baltimore County Police Sergeant Andrea Bylen.
The woman who calls the Barnwell Court unit home came back in the morning and found the place completely ransacked. The burglars swiped televisions, electronics, gift cards, blank checks, and jewelry worth about $4,000.
Then she made a heartbreaking discovery, her pet turtle Donatella dead on the bedroom floor.
"It's very concerning to us that a suspect would enter the home of someone that they do not know and kill their pet,” Bylen said. “The turtle was a helpless pet in the cage and the suspect decided to kill it for no reason."
Investigators say the criminals took Donatella out of her aquarium and impaled her with a knife sharpener.
Details that aren't sitting well with neighbors.
"It's kinda nerve wracking to know that something like that happened around here," said Brianna Graves. "The complex is usually nice and quiet, we don't really have too many problems or issues here."
It was an extremely violating break-in, committed by two people who are complete strangers to the victim.
Since the January 20th crime, investigators have been searching for the two suspects. They were able to track down and arrest 24-year-old Calvin Fogg about two weeks ago, but Michael Jones was still on the run until Tuesday morning.
"He was walking down the street on North Milton Street in Baltimore City when a citizen recognized him and called police," said Bylen.
Jones is being held in the city, and will later be transferred to the county where he faces charges of 1st degree burglary and aggravated cruelty to kill an animal.
The 23-year-old has been connected to at least two other burglaries in the county, as well as an armed home invasion four days after he killed the turtle.
Investigators say in that crime, Jones and another suspect tied up the homeowners on Cynthia Terrace then robbed them. Luckily, the two people home at the time managed to get free, unharmed.
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