Investigators brought new charges yesterday -- including first-degree murder -- against the man accused of killing 8-year-old Marciana Monia Ringo, as federal, state and local authorities continued to search for him.
On its Web site, the FBI listed a description of 22-year-old Jamal Kenneth Abeokuto of the 5200 block of W. North Ave. in Baltimore. He faces federal extortion charges, as well as new state charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and extortion.
Milagro White, his former girlfriend and Marciana's mother, tried yesterday to cope with her loss.
"I'm hoping and praying that [Abeokuto] gets caught," she said. But if he is not arrested, "I hope they find him and I hope they kill him."
The girl was reported missing Dec. 3. Abeokuto told police that he had brought her to Northwood Elementary School that day at 7:30 a.m.
But nine days later, two boys walking home from school discovered Marciana's body in a wooded area near Joppa Farm Road and Haverhill Road in Joppatowne, Harford County.
Police say she was found with her throat slit. Blunt-force trauma and cutting caused her death, said Lt. Bud Frank of the Maryland State Police, which issued an arrest warrant for Abeokuto yesterday. Frank said information from the investigation and evidence from the crime scene prompted the warrant.
Maryland State Police, the FBI and Baltimore police are investigating the case together, Frank said.
The FBI crime alert for Abeokuto described the African-American man as 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 175 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, and it said he has ties to New York City and Philadelphia. He is considered armed and dangerous, and the FBI Web site says that anyone who encounters him should call 911.
Abeokuto disappeared after he posted bail Dec. 8 after being arrested on misdemeanor gun possession charges. Police say they did not have enough evidence to hold him in connection with the killing. But police say they later matched a print from his left index finger to one discovered on a ransom note that had been sent to White.
White said she is mourning her child and "just trying to get past what I'm going through right now."
She said she had a good relationship with Abeokuto's family but hasn't spoken with them since Wednesday, after it seemed "like everybody was pointing their finger at him."
"None of his family has even called to see how I was doing," White said.
Now she is spending time with her family, particularly her son, 3-year-old Marc Ringo Jr. Marciana and Marc, she said, "were each other's favorite person."