Bail was set at $1 million yesterday for a Mount Airy contractor accused of killing a Taylorsville psychologist he had worked for and owed $300,000.

Randall H. Gerlach, 56, of the 13000 block of Manor Drive in Frederick County was arrested Wednesday on a charge of first-degree murder of Rodney R. Cocking, a National Science Foundation official who disappeared Feb. 23.

Carroll District Judge Marc G. Rasinsky said Gerlach is entitled to bail, but he set the amount at $1 million and ordered that Gerlach be placed on a home-monitoring program and surrender his passport if he posts bond. Gerlach remained at the Carroll County Detention Center in Westminster last night.

In arguing for bail, defense attorney William L. Haugh Jr. said Gerlach has known for weeks that he was a suspect in the case but did not flee. Investigators searched his home office and his pickup truck -- and placed a bug on the vehicle "so they knew where he was going. ... He certainly could have left the state, left the country," his attorney said.