COLUMBIA, Md. — Neighbors in the Long Reach Jeffers Glen area are now asking questions as Howard County investigators continue their search for a suspect wanted for the murder of his girlfriend.
It happened sometime in the overnight hours of Saturday into Sunday, police believe.
Elizabeth Chesnut, who lives next door, says she never heard a sound. But when investigators swarmed Watchlight Court on Sunday, she says it was nerve-wracking to learn what happened inside.
'Sent chills up my spine': Neighbors react to murder next door
“Sent chills up my spine. That I’m downstairs watching TV and on the other side of the wall somebody’s getting killed,” she said.
Police say that 24-year-old Darwin Carcamo Santiago strangled his girlfriend, 35-year-old Esmeralda Perez Mendez of Takoma Park, and has possibly fled the area.
It was an acquaintance with a key who found her body in the suspect’s bedroom.
Chestnut tells WMAR-2 News’ Blair Sabol she immediately recognized his photo. They had some limited interactions.
“He was friendly and polite,” she said. “But again, we don’t walk around with a sign on us that says: I’m a killer. So, you know, really anyone can kill if they put their mind up to it, if they get mad or upset enough. So that’s a little concerning.”
Neighbors say he was one of several people who lived inside the townhome, between four and five total roommates.
“There’s just no way that many people in that confined of an area did not hear, see or know something. I just can’t believe that,” Chesnut said.
Carcamo Santiago had recently moved in, they say, only about six months ago.
They report they all worked at local restaurants also owned by their landlord.
Chesnut says she often heard them going and coming from work, early hours and late nights. She heard the typical morning traffic on Sunday.
Then she saw the owner’s brother arrive, then the paramedics and then, the police.
“I’m feeling for this young lady’s family as well,” she said. “To me it just seems like they were acting like nothing happened. They come home from work that night. They go out for work the next day, like nothing ever happened and that’s disrespectful. That’s a person’s life and it’s taken, and it’s taken in a very bad way.”
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The rest of the roommates, she says, appear to have moved out Monday morning.
“They came this morning, the owner’s brother and another group came and moved three gentlemen out. Because they were packing up their stuff, putting them in the SUVs, so they moved them out,” she recalled. "I don’t know where they’ve gone."
Police have obtained an arrest warrant for Carcamo Santiago, who’s now facing first- and second-degree murder charges.
