A body believed to be that of an 8-year-old Baltimore girl missing since last week was discovered yesterday in woods in Harford County as authorities issued an arrest warrant for the boyfriend of the girl's mother on charges that he mailed a ransom note the day the girl disappeared threatening to kill her if he didn't receive $5,000.
Police investigating Marciana Monia Ringo's disappearance had arrested the boyfriend, 22-year-old Jamal Abeokuto, on misdemeanor handgun charges Saturday. But Abeokuto posted bail Sunday, was released from jail and disappeared.
Maryland U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio described Abeokuto yesterday as a fugitive who could be armed and dangerous. Authorities declined to answer questions about the investigation at an afternoon news conference, saying they remained hopeful that the case would end with Marciana found safe and alive.
Those hopes dimmed less than an hour later, when two pupils walking home from an elementary school in southern Harford County discovered the fully-clothed body of a young African-American girl in a wooded area about 50 feet away from the intersection of Haverhill and Joppa Farm roads.
City police spokeswoman Ragina Averella said last night that the body had not been positively identified, but the physical description and the clothing were "very consistent" with descriptions of the third-grader who was last seen alive on the morning of Dec. 3.
Inconsistencies in story
Abeokuto, of the 5200 block of W. North Ave., was the last person known to have seen Marciana alive, and he had told police that was when he dropped her off at Northwood Elementary School. Court records made public yesterday show that investigators had quickly discovered inconsistencies in his statements and other evidence suggesting that he could be tied to her disappearance - but he was not charged in the case.
City police and federal authorities did not return phone calls about Abeokuto last night or refused to comment on the events surrounding the investigation.
A pair of bloody jeans was one of the first clues that made Abeokuto a central figure in the case. On Dec. 4, a day after Marciana disappeared, police discovered a pair of Phat Farm designer men's jeans, covered with what appeared to be blood, stuffed inside a plastic Wal-Mart shopping bag in the woods near Marciana's home in the Northwood neighborhood, according to an affidavit sworn to by FBI Special Agent Martin Woods.
In the affidavit, Woods said police then searched Abeokuto's vehicle, where they found a loaded firearm and a receipt for a pair of Back Road Blues jeans purchased Dec. 3 at a Wal-Mart store in Aberdeen, near where Abeokuto worked at a grocery warehouse. At the time of the search, Abeokuto was undergoing questioning at Baltimore police headquarters. The affidavit said detectives took possession of his clothing, which included a pair of Back Road Blues jeans.
"I believe that Abeokuto purchased the new pair of jeans to conceal the blood on his other pair of jeans," Woods said in the affidavit written three days ago.
In the days immediately after Marciana's disappearance, police also discovered inconsistencies in Abeokuto's account of the last morning the girl was seen alive.
Marciana's father, Marc "Starks" Ringo Sr., told police that he went to his children's home at about 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 3 to take his 3-year-old son Marc Ringo Jr. to day-care, according to court records. Ringo told police that Abeokuto told him at that point that Marciana already had left the house to walk to school.
A neighbor, however, told investigators that she saw Marciana leave the apartment at about 8 a.m. and get into a vehicle driven by Abeokuto. Court records show that Abeokuto explained the discrepancy by saying that the girl had started to walk to school but returned home to have her homework signed by an adult.
Never got to school
Abeokuto said he then drove Marciana to school, but court records show that school officials called the girl's mother, Milagro White, during the day to say Marciana never arrived at class.
Two days later, on Dec. 5, White received by mail the scrawled, handwritten ransom note addressed to her children's father.
"To Starks: I want $5,000," the letter said. Riddled with misspellings, it went on: "Put in bag and put I men bathroom at Dru Hill Park by 8 p.m. tonight or the girl dies."
"If she die let just say we even, an eye for an eye," the letter said.
It was unclear yesterday when authorities were notified about the letter. Court records show that on Tuesday, a week after Marciana was last seen, authorities matched a fingerprint found on the back of the note to the left index finger of Abeokuto and used that evidence to secure a warrant for his arrest.
By then, though, Abeokuto was missing.
After his arrest Saturday on the handgun charge, Abeokuto was held on $75,000 bond at the city's Central Booking and Intake Center. On Sunday - a day before prosecutors and investigators would have appeared at a bail review hearing in the city's district courts - Abeokuto posted bail and left jail.
Federal and city officials refused to answer questions about the case yesterday. It was unclear whether Abeokuto could have been charged directly in Marciana's disappearance at the time he was booked on the gun charge or whether police surveillance teams tracked his movements after he posted bail.
Not 'the final word'
DiBiagio, the state's top federal prosecutor, said yesterday that the extortion charge brought against Abeokuto yesterday "is not and should not be viewed as the final word in this investigation."
In Joppatowne last night, curious neighbors watched investigators recover the body of the young girl and shook their head at the chain of events.
"Why they let him go, I don't understand," said Martin Conrad, a 39-year-old chemical mixer. "It's scary when it ends up in your neighborhood."
Sun staff writers Del Quentin Wilber, Richard Irwin and Laura Barnhardt contributed to this article.