Editor’s Note: Some of the information provided here may be disturbing for people. Because of the nature of the crime and the community interest in it, we felt it was important to share details, but in providing them, we have done so with a careful mind to our audience.
GREENBELT, Md. (DC News Now) — Charging documents obtained by DC News Now Tuesday provide more detailed information about the murder of a beloved Greenbelt teacher whom people reported missing in July.
Mariame Toure Sylla, 59, disappeared on July 29 after she left her home to take a walk. She last was seen at about 8 p.m. on that date and reported missing the next day.
On Sept. 1, more than a month after she disappeared, Prince George’s County police said that Harold Francis Landon III, 33, of University Park faced charges related to Sylla’s killing.
Charging documents describe how Sylla’s body was found and what led investigators to the conclusion that Landon was responsible for her murder.
Police received a report on Aug. 1 about a possible body on rocks near a pond in Clinton. There, Prince George’s County police officers and and Fire and EMS members found dismembered remains of a woman with few identifying features, such as tattoos or scars.
The Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore performed an autopsy on Aug. 2 and concluded the woman’s dismemberment and decapitation “were consistent with a machine cut such as a reciprocating saw.”
The charging document said the blood obtained was consistent with Mariame Toure Sylla.
A witness told police that they saw a man in a white pickup truck at the pond around 9:30 p.m. on July 31. The witness saw the man carry something from the truck and dumping it near where Sylla’s remains were found on Aug. 1.
The witness said the man walked around the pond and cleaned his hands in the water.
Investigators canvassed the area for additional witnesses and surveillance footage and found a video showing a white pickup truck driving into a parking lot near the pond. The trucks lights were turned off and it traveled on the grass, down to the pond where the witness saw the man carrying something from his truck.
Investigators said they identified Landon as a suspect. He’d been arrested by the Greenbelt City Police Department on Aug. 1 in an unrelated domestic violence incident during which he was driving the same truck seen by the pond.
Analysis of his phone records showed that he and Sylla were in the same area where she last was seen alive on July 29. He was also in the same area where her remains were found.
Police executed a court-ordered search warrant at a home associated with Landon on Aug. 31. They seized several power tools, including a “reciprocating saw.”
Landon is being charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and disposing of a body in an unauthorized place.
There was no indication that Landon and Sylla knew each other.
