A District Court judge yesterday denied bail for a 26-year-old Essex man charged with strangling a 16-year-old Harford County girl.
Rafel Bonner, whose last known address was in the first block of Maurice Circle, was charged with first-degree murder yesterday in the death of Courtney Danielle Letiro of the 1800 block of Grempler Way in Edgewood. Her body was found Sunday near the Back River sewage treatment plant.
Later, Judge Alexandra Williams ordered Mr. Bonner held without bail in the county Detention Center in Towson.
Homicide detectives picked up Mr. Bonner about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at a home in the 1600 block of Doolittle Road in Essex, county police spokesman E. Jay Miller said. He was taken to the Essex Precinct for questioning, and arrested and charged early yesterday.
Mr. Miller said investigators linked Mr. Bonner to the crime.
"We can place him at the scene," the spokesman said. "And we did recover personal property on him that was taken from the victim. The property was taken from a duffel bag that was known to be his."
Mr. Miller would not describe what kind of property was recovered.
The teen-ager's fully clothed body was found Sunday afternoon by a man walking his dog in the 8200 block of Diamond Point Road within sight of the treatment plant. The body was partially covered by a large piece of tin, police said.
An autopsy Monday showed that the girl had been strangled.
Eckton Letiro said yesterday his daughter and Mr. Bonner were not friends or acquaintances as far as he knew.
"We did not know him," Mr. Letiro said. "And my daughter did not know him."
Police said Courtney, a 10th grader at Edgewood High School, had been the subject of an active missing person's search since Jan. 18 when her family told police that she had run away from home. A family member said she had run away twice before to be with friends.
A funeral was held Wednesday.