WILLIAM McQUAIN - 11 yo - Germantown MD

Jane McQuain, Germantown woman found dead; son, William, and car missing

October 13, 2011 - 04:24 am

Montgomery County police are investigating the murder of a Germantown woman and the disappearance of her young son.

Officers found 51-year-old Jane McQuain dead in her bedroom at the Seneca Knolls Condos in the 1300 block of Briarcliff Terrace about 8:25 p.m. Wednesday night. Investigators say there was trauma to her body.

Earlier that day, a friend of McQuain had reported her missing, police say.

McQuain’s 11-year-old son, William, is missing. Authorities say he was last seen at the home on September 30. Police believe he was abducted.

William is described as a light skin black male, approximately 5' tall and weighs about 85 pounds.

Police say McQuain’s car is also missing and that her son could be with it.. The vehicle is described as a 2011 black Honda CRV with Maryland tags 5AG9405.

Maryland State Police have issued an Amber Alert for William, and asks that anyone with information about the case call 240.773.5070. Callers may remain anonymous.

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/10/jane-mcquain-germantown-woman-found-dead-son-william-and-car-missing-67807.html

NCMEC poster

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/AmberExternalFCServlet?act=retAmberCase&amberId=9135

I got a pop up for this on my computer! Did no one know that William was missing until they found his mother dead?

GERMANTOWN, Md - A car belonging to a slain Maryland woman whose 11-year-old son is missing and feared abducted was found unoccupied Thursday and police were still searching for the boy.

Montgomery County police would not reveal where the woman's vehicle, a black Honda SUV, was recovered since her son remains missing and the investigation was still active.

Police say they found 51-year-old Jane McQuain dead in her bedroom Wednesday night in a condominium complex in Germantown, about 30 miles northwest of Washington. Investigators say there was trauma to her body, and her death is considered a homicide.

Maryland State Police have issued an Amber Alert for McQuain's 11-year-old son William. Authorities say he was last seen at the home on Sept. 30. Police believe he was abducted.

William McQuain is a 6th grader at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, but Montgomery County Schools spokesman Dana Tofig said officials could not release information about when he last attended classes there.

They would be sharing information like that with police.

"We will do anything we can to help police," Tofig said. "We're very concerned for his safety."

Students were finding out about McQuain's disappearance on Thursday, but a letter would go home to parents to make sure they are informed too, he said.----------
Sarah Brumfield contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/state/police-search-for-missing-11-year-old-and-suspect#ixzz1agKydHJJ

Poster's note: I got a pop up for this on my computer! Did no one know that William was missing until they found his mother dead?

Boy still missing after MD man arrested in Charlotte

Updated today at 4:08 PM

The husband of a Maryland woman found dead in her condo was charged Thursday, but her son is still missing, News4's Pat Collins reported.

An Amber Alert was issued just after midnight Thursday for 11-year-old William McQuain, who was last seen in Germantown on Sept. 30.

The body of the boy's mother, 51-year-old Jane McQuain, was found inside the bedroom of her home in Germantown Wednesday evening. Investigators said the death was caused by blunt force trauma and is being called a homicide.

The boy was last seen at the home in the 13100 block of Briarcliff Terrace. Investigators believe the boy may have been with his mother's 2011 black Honda CRV with Maryland plate number 5AG9405, which was also missing from the scene.

Montgomery County Police said the Honda CRV was found unoccupied Thursday morning in Charlotte, N.C.

Jane McQuain's husband, 45-year-old Curtis Lopez, is in custody in Charlotte. He is not William's biological father, Collins reported.

Law enforcement continues to search the Germantown area for William, described as a light-skinned African-American, 5 feet tall, 85 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He attends Martin Luther King Middle School in Germantown, which sent a letter home to parents Thursday.

Anyone with information on the child should call either 911 or Montgomery County police at 301-279-8000. Police caution citizens not to take action on their own.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/-Abducted-Child-William-McQuain-Sparks-Amber-Alert-131775383.html

Jane McQuain, Germantown woman found dead; son, William, and car missing

Police in Charlotte, N.C. said that an arrest has been made in connection with the murder of a Germantown woman and the disappearance of her young son.

There is no word yet, however, on the whereabouts of the missing boy, 11-year-old William McQuain.

The suspect, Curtis Maurice Lopez, 45, was taken into custody in Charlotte, N.C. He was arrested on a murder arrest warrant out of Maryland.

Lopez is McQuain’s husband and the step-father of William McQuain.

Officers found 51-year-old Jane McQuain dead in her bedroom at the Seneca Knolls Condos in the 1300 block of Briarcliff Terrace about 8:25 p.m. Wednesday night. Investigators say there was trauma to her body.

Authorities say her son William was last seen at the home on September 30 and police believe he was abducted.

William is described as a light skin black male, approximately 5' tall and weighs about 85 pounds.

William is a student at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Germantown.

Earlier that day, a friend of McQuain had reported her missing, police say. Police located the car in North Carolina. The vehicle was unoccupied.

Diane Speakes says when she last saw the McQuains, William was in his football gear.

“And we just kinda waved and that was it,” Speakes says. “And I don't remember seeing her since.”

Maryland State Police have issued an Amber Alert for William, and asks that anyone with information about the case call 240.773.5070. Callers may remain anonymous.


http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/10/jane-mcquain-germantown-woman-found-dead-son-william-and-car-missing-67807.html

Police search Damascus Recreational Park for William McQuain

Police are searching Damascus Recreational Park in Md. for the body of William McQuain, the 11-year-old Germantown boy missing since September 30.

In addition to Damascus, police are searching Little Bennett Regional Park in Clarksburg, MD.

Police have been at both locations since mid-morning after information developed by detectives led them there.

A police spokesperson said they are "hoping he is alive."

The area is very thickly wooded. Officers were searching on horseback as well.

SHORT URL: http://wj.la/mPdlW7

Missing Boy’s Stepfather in Court Monday
Family, friends searching Germantown today
By John Wist | Sunday, Oct 16, 2011

The stepfather of a missing Germantown boy will appear in a North Carolina court Monday to face charges in his ex-wife’s murder. Curtis Lopez is accused of beating and stabbing 51-year-old Jane McQuain to death.

Lopez was arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina last week after detectives tracked McQuain’s missing SUV to a hotel there. Meanwhile McQuain’s son, 11-year-old William McQuain is still missing.

Friends, family, classmates and teammates are gathering today to start their own search party in the Germantown neighborhood where the McQuain’s lived. Those who organized the search say they just can’t sit idly by.

“Jane would definitely be doing this for any of us if she was here,” Roger Anderson, a search organizer, told News4’s Derrick Ward. “Unfortunately since she’s not here, we are picking up that slack and doing it for her. We’re all parents, so we definitely understand.”

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Missing-Boys-Stepfather-in-Court-Monday-131942618.html

Suspect in wife's death may return to Maryland; Boy still missing

Updated: Oct 17, 2011 5:27 PM CDT

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - The man charged in connection with the death of his wife and disappearance of his stepson has waived his extradition rights and could return to Maryland at any time.

Curtis Maurice Lopez, 45, who has connections to the Mint Hill area, was found in a Charlotte hotel room last week.

Lopez, charged in the murder of his wife, Jane McQuain in Maryland, was in a Mecklenburg County courtroom Monday morning and made the decision then to waive extradition, court officials said.

Lopez was found around 9:30 am Thursday at the Econo Lodge on East Independence Boulevard in Charlotte. He was being sought after Montgomery County Police found his McQuain, 51, dead inside her Germantown, Md. condo Wednesday evening.

Lopez, who has connections to this area in Mint Hill, is the stepfather of William McQuain who is still missing.

On Monday, Lopez waived his extradition rights and could leave whenever Maryland officials show up to take him back. Just after the court appearance, a friend of Lopez talked to WBTV outside court.

Kevin, who would not provide his last name, said he was there to show support for Lopez, who he knew from where they worked for some time.

Kevin told WBTV that he heard many conversations between Lopez and McQuain in the past and that they were not heated.

"He loved her," said Kevin, who added that he was hopeful William would be found.

"It's not whether I agree with him or not it just someone needs to be here in support of him," Kevin said for why he was there.

Another man walked out of court and said "he's innocent."

Lopez's lawyer is staying tight lipped about the case. After leaving court, he wouldn't comment on the case.

A search warrant, released Monday, however shed some light on what police found in the motel room Lopez was found in last week.

Among the items, the warrant shows they found a credit card belonging to Jane McQuain, nine $100 bills, various clothing, a bookbag and a purse.

Inside the car Lopez reportedly drove to Charlotte from Maryland, police found several cell phones.

Maryland police say McQuain and her son's cell phones were missing from her home. Other items, included 18 copies of a marriage certificate.

The car it turns out is registered to McQuain.

According to the warrant, a woman found staying with Lopez at the Econo Lodge told police McQuain took a train to visit family in Philadelphia in mid September.

Pleshette Caldwell says Lopez returned the first or second of October driving McQuain's car.

A neighbor to the McQuain's in Maryland tells a bit of a different story though, saying he witnessed Lopez load a TV in McQuain's car on October 5.

On October 12, Caldwell was in a wreck driving the car.

She told police it was her boyfriend's mother's, the name of the mother she gave was Jane.

Caldwell also gave police a cell number that police connected to Lopez.

Detectives from Montgomery County interviewed Lopez with CMPD detectives last week. It is unclear if he has provided information to help find William.

Detectives found the SUV with Lopez at the motel, but the boy, who is 11, was not with him.

Lopez had been living in Mint Hill, NC, for an undetermined amount of time, jail records show.

"They told me to grab my daughter," said Keyaurna Lawhorn, who spent the night at the motel a couple doors down from Lopez,. "I sat in the lobby and I came back and I saw the dude getting arrested."

Investigators are clinging to hope the boy is still alive and with relatives, but admit the likelihood of that is decreasing as time goes by.

"A lot of attention is being paid to [Lopez], but we still need help finding this child," Montgomery County Police Spokesperson Rebecca Innocenti told WBTV by phone.

Innocenti said Major Crimes Detectives were scheduled to discuss the case with the detectives in Charlotte and update officials on the status of the investigation.

William McQuain is 5'0" tall and weighs 85 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.

Residents of the McQuain's Maryland neighborhood say they saw Lopez taking items out of the condo recently and packing them inside Jane McQuain's Honda CRV.

William McQuain was last seen September 30 at his middle school. Jane McQuain wasn't reported missing until Wednesday. It is unclear how long before that she been dead.

Lopez had previously served time in a Pennsylvania prison after a conviction for a violent crime in Dauphin County in 1987. He served more than 10 years and was released on parole in 2000, prison officials said.

The official also said Jane McQuain was originally from Dauphin Co. The Washington Post was reporting McQuain had testified on Lopez's behalf during the trial.

http://www.wbtv.com/story/15713254/man-charged-in-wifes-murder-waives-extradiction-to-maryland

Police in Montgomery County, Maryland, confirmed Tuesday they have found remains in a wooded area believed to be those of William McQuain, a missing 11-year-old boy.

A search dog team found the body, said Rebecca Innocenti, police spokeswoman. The scene was still being processed Tuesday morning, and she had no information on when a positive identification would be made.

The news comes a week after Curtis Lopez, 45, was arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is accused of killing his wife, 51-year-old Jane McQuain.

The case began when a friend of the boy's mother reported her missing, saying he had not seen her for about two weeks and that he was concerned.

When detectives arrived at the woman's home in Germantown, they found Jane McQuain dead in her bedroom. Her son was not there and the woman's vehicle, a Honda CRV, was gone. It was found later.

Police had been searching for the boy, who they had hope was with a relative or family friend, but said that as time passed, that possibility became “more and more of a long shot.”

This story is developing. We'll bring you more information as soon as we get it.





http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/18/body-found-in-maryland-missing-boy-case/?hpt=hp_t2

William McQuain found

A body believed to be William McQuain, who has been missing since September, was found Tuesday

Montgomery County Police say that the remains of who they believe is the 11-year-old, who has been missing since Sept. 30, were found in the area of the 23000 block of Clarksburg Road in Clarksburg.

The remains were found by a dog handler. It's believed the body has been at the location since Oct. 1.

Surveillance video from a storage facility in the 13200 block of Wisteria Drive in Germantown from Oct. 1 shows William and his suspected killer, Curtis Lopez, going in and coming out of the facility, police say..

in the footage, McQuain appears to be in a playful mood. The clothing William was wearing at the time is similar to the clothing found on the body discovered Tuesday.

The Germantown boy has been missing for more than two weeks. His mother, Jane McQuain, was found murdered inside their Germantown apartment last week.

The child’s step-father, Curtis Lopez, who is the main suspect in McQuain’s murder, waived his right to extradition from North Carolina on Monday.

Police searched two areas in Montgomery County, but didn't find the child.

Lopez on Monday waived extradition to Maryland during his first court appearance in North Carolina.

On the day McQuain was found dead, police in Charlotte, N.C., responded to a traffic accident involving McQuain’s vehicle. The driver was 24-year-old Pleshette Caldwell, who claimed to be driving “her boyfriend's mother's vehicle” and stated that the mother's name is Jane, according to police.

She said Lopez returned from out of town in early October driving the black Honda and in possession of a large television.

Police tracked Lopez to an Econo lodge in Charlotte, where they found McQuain’s credit card and a boxcutter knife. In McQuain’s SUV, they found cell phones, chargers, cash and 18 copies of a marriage certificate, according to police documents.

Friends and family of Lopez refused to speak with reporters outside a Charlotte courtroom on Monday. Lopez waived extradition and will be returned to Maryland. Police say it could be several days before the suspect is extradited from North Carolina to Maryland.

http://wj.la/pAiUwi

Details: Police Believe They've Found William McQuain's Remains

Police: Surveillance footage from Saturday, Oct. 1, showed the boy alive with his stepfather Curtis Lopez.

Montgomery County police have found human remains they believe are those of 11-year-old William McQuain, Montgomery County Police spokeswoman Rebecca Innocenti told Patch.

Innocenti said the body was found 9:11 a.m. Tuesday by a K-9 officer in the wooded area off Route121, a quarter mile west of Route 355 in the Clarksburg region.

Police said video footage obtained from a storage unit off Wisteria Drive on Saturday, Oct. 1, showed William McQuain and his stepfather Curtis Lopez together.

"He showed no signs of distress and appeared to be in a playful mood," Innocenti said.

The same clothing William McQuain was wearing in the footage appeared to be the same clothing found on the remains, Innocenti said.

Police found William's mother, Jane McQuain, 51, stabbed and beaten to death in her Germantown apartment Wednesday. An Amber alert had been issued for William, who was a sixth grader at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Germantown.

Lopez, who is McQuain’s estranged husband, has been charged with murder.

Innocenti said a forensics team is collecting evidence and that the medical examiner would confirm the body's identity.

http://germantown.patch.com/articles/details-police-believe-they-ve-found-william-mcquain-s-remains

The surveillance video shows William McQuain, dressed in shorts
on an October Saturday, rolling around the parking lot of a Germantown
self-storage warehouse on the wheels in his sneakers.

“He was behaving like a typical 11-year-old,” said Montgomery
County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger. “Gliding up and down the
pavement.”


What the 11-year-old didn’t know, authorities said, was that
his mother had been beaten and stabbed to death in their nearby
apartment. William was at the storage center happily waiting with the
man police say killed his mother — Curtis Lopez, his stepfather.
By the end of the day, Oct. 1, police said, Lopez would also kill William and toss his body in the woods.
For days, police and volunteers conducted a massive search in hopes the boy would be found alive. Friends gathered for a vigil, and his football buddies put stickers on their helmets: “William McQuain. We ♥ U.”
But Tuesday morning, hope turned to mourning when police said the boy’s
body had been found in a wooded area just off a Clarksburg road.
Detectives had focused on that area after tracking Lopez’s cellphone
use.
“This confirmed our worst fears,” said Jeff McDermott, who
coached William on a Little League All-Star team. “He was a great kid, a
great player. He did everything we asked him to do.”
Lopez and
Jane McQuain had a long and troubled relationship, but only days earlier
the two had taken William on a vacation to Ocean City. A friend said
Jane McQuain called from the beach, saying that she and Lopez had argued
and that she was scared.
Exactly what happened that weekend
might never be known. Lopez, who was arrested Thursday in North
Carolina, has refused to talk to investigators, police said. The police
account of what happened to William and his mother is based on the
evidence that had been gathered. Lopez has been charged with murder in
the slaying of McQuain, 51, and police said they expect to charge him
with murder in William’s death.
Montgomery police were first
called to McQuain’s Germantown apartment last Wednesday by a friend who
was worried after she had been out of touch. Officers who climbed a
ladder and crawled through a window found McQuain dead in her bedroom.
There was no sign of William, nor any sign that he had been hurt in the
apartment.
But there were plenty of signs of him and
accomplishments: Photos and certificates hung throughout, an indication
of a single mother whose life revolved around a quiet, sharp kid with a
sweet disposition.
“The apartment was like a shrine to him,” a law enforcement source said.
An
acquaintance of McQuain’s told police about a man seen going in and out
of her apartment, according to court papers posted online by WUSA-TV
(Channel 9). A neighbor saw the man load a TV box into McQuain’s
sport-utility vehicle. That man was Lopez, court papers said.
Police
found Lopez last week after McQuain’s 2011 Honda CRV had been in an
accident in Charlotte, according to the court papers. The woman driving
the Honda said she was Lopez’s girlfriend and told police that she was
driving her boyfriend’s mother’s car and that the mother’s name was
Jane.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/2011/10/18/gIQAL8UovL_story.html

Maryland police found remains on Tuesday that they believe are a
missing boy whose mother was discovered beaten and stabbed to death last
week, and the child’s stepfather is the primary suspect in his death, authorities said.
Investigators discovered the remains of a young,
African-American child Tuesday morning in a wooded area of Clarksburg in
Montgomery County after a search that spanned about 30,000 acres and
multiple days. Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said officers believe it is
the body of 11-year-old William McQuain, who had not been seen for more than two weeks.
Clothing on his body appears to match what he was wearing on Oct. 1,
the last morning police have evidence of him alive.
Authorities began searching for William after his mother, 51-year-old Jane McQuain,
was found dead last Wednesday in the bedroom of her condominium in
Germantown, about 30 miles northwest of Washington. Her estranged
husband, Curtis Maurice Lopez, 45, was arrested the following morning at
an EconoLodge in Charlotte, N.C., on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder.
He declined at a hearing Monday to fight his extradition back to Maryland.
Lopez is the main suspect in William McQuain’s death, but authorities must
conclusively determine the child’s identity before charging him with the
child’s murder, said Capt. Paul Starks, a police spokesman.
No motive was immediately apparent, though McQuain’s former boyfriend said
she had recently expressed concerns about her safety and had been
fighting with Lopez, an ex-con. It was also not immediately clear if Lopez has an attorney.
A search warrant drawn up by Charlotte
police says officers found a box cutter knife and nine $100 bills in his
motel room, along with Jane McQuain’s cell phone and assorted clothing.
Police also found 18 copies of a marriage certificate inside McQuain’s
car, which was parked in the EconoLodge parking lot.
The car was involved in an accident in Charlotte the same night Jane McQuain’s body
was found, the search warrant says. The driver of McQuain’s car was a
woman who police say was found with Lopez at the motel. The woman,
identified as 24-year-old Pleshette Marie Caldwell, told police she was
driving her boyfriend’s mother’s car and that the mother’s name was
Jane. The account on the cell phone number she provided belongs to Lopez, the police said.
No phone listing for Caldwell could immediately be found.
William McQuain was a 6th grade student who friends say had a cheerful
personality and loved sports, animals and video games. One friend,
16-year-old Ryan Wolverton, said he befriended William after their
mothers became friendly. He said William looked up to him like an older
brother, and that he had hoped William would be found in a special hiding place he had.
“Me and William stayed up all night. About 4
or 5 in the morning we went outside. We were just sitting there
talking,” Wolverton said. “William was just telling me he had this
secret place with his friends, and only they knew it. And it was really close to the woods.”
Wolverton said he didn’t know much about Lopez, but that “William thought the world of Curtis.”
In Montgomery County, the police chief said the boy’s body is believed to
have been at that location in the wooded area since October 1. Security
video shows Lopez and the boy going in and out of a Germantown storage
facility two times that morning, and McQuain’s clothing from that day
appears to match what was found on Tuesday, Manger said. Police were
still investigating where the boy was killed.
Lopez had served more than a dozen years in prison in Pennsylvania before being paroled
in 2000, records show. Jane McQuain stayed married to him during that
time, and Lopez had in recent years tried to be a factor in McQuain’s
life, even requesting that William call him “dad,” said Ronald McCombs,
McQuain’s former boyfriend. But he said McQuain had resisted any effort
to get close to Lopez and had devoted herself to William.
McCombs has said McQuain told him several weeks ago that she feared for her
safety and was concerned Lopez, who police say had been seen loitering
around the condominium complex in recent weeks and moving boxes from
inside her home to her car, might harm her. He said Tuesday he had
assumed William would not be found alive.
“He did not deserve it. Nobody deserves to get murdered — nobody,” McCombs said.
“It’s a big hole in my life right now,” he added.
He said he was hoping to come to court if Lopez ever goes to trial so that
he can see the jury cry at photographs of the child.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/md-police-have-found-remains-of-boy-believed-to-be-missing-11-year-old-whose-mother-was-slain/2011/10/18/gIQANw1VuL_story.html