Mar 3, 2006 9:50 am US/Eastern
Police Arrest Suspect In 'Burned Body' Case
by Kimberly Houk
Annapolis, MD (WJZ) ―
A 17-year-old boy was charged Thursday with stabbing his mother's boyfriend to death and setting the body on fire, while investigators asked new questions about his mother, one of whose husbands died in an earlier blaze.
Matthew J. Haarhoff initially talked with Anne Arundel County Police Department investigators about the death of Anthony F. Fertitta, 50, who dated Haarhoff's mother and was found dead in flames last month near her home.
But after witnesses told them Haarhoff had acknowledged stabbing Fertitta and police charged him with first-degree murder, officers discovered Haarhoff had left the area in a red Dodge Neon with flames painted on the sides.
He was apprehended Thursday afternoon at a Salisbury motel after police received an anonymous tip that he was there, said Lt. David Waltemeyer of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. Haarhoff had someone with him, but that person wasn't charged with a crime, Waltemeyer said.
Haarhoff was being taken back to Anne Arundel County for a bond hearing.
Police said his mother, Cynthia J. McKay, 49, helped clean up the crime scene at her home, using bleach to cover blood stains, and helped dispose of the body. She was charged with being an accessory after first-degree murder and is in custody.
McKay "cleaned the residence afterwards and destroyed evidence," Waltemeyer said. He said detectives haven't ruled out that McKay helped with the killing, and he also said it's unclear whether there were other people in McKay's house when Fertitta was killed.
Fertitta's killing raised questions about the death of a former husband of McKay's. Her third husband, Clarence E. Downs III, died in 2002 in a fire in their Baltimore County home. McKay escaped the blaze, which was ruled an accident.
Elise Armacost, spokeswoman for the Baltimore County Fire Department, said Thursday that the case will be looked at again.
"It was exhaustively investigated, and there was no evidence to suggest anything other than an accidental fire caused by improper disposal of smoking materials" in the Lansdowne home, Armacost said. "Under the circumstances, the investigators are going to take a fresh look at that."
McKay has a criminal past beyond any suspicious fires. According to published reports, she was convicted of stealing from two employers, including a Catholic seminary in Baltimore, and eluded police for months before pleading guilty to embezzlement. She was released from prison in July.
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