According to neighbors, Brown lived at Clifton Avenue and Oaklawn Road in the Gwynnbrook Townhomes in Gwynn Oak with a woman, whom neighbors called his wife, and two children. They had three cars: a Toyota, a Lexus and a Cadillac.
The neighborhood is just a short distance from Leakin Park, where the woman who survived the attack was found.
Some neighbors said they saw about eight police officers escort Brown out of his apartment Friday, but none of them would give their names.
Maj. Terrence P. McLarney, the commander of the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit, said Brown, now 41, confessed to killing Emma O'Hearn, 25, a homeless prostitute whose body was found in June 2003. McLarney said it is too early to know if this case can be linked to more recent strangulations of prostitutes.
Thus far, Brown has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree rape for attacks that occurred in 2003 and 2004. The charges are in connection with the fatal beating of one prostitute, the near-fatal beating of another, and the strangulation of the 15-year-old, who police believe was not involved in the sex trade.
"People have to be careful arriving at conclusions based on the manner of death," McLarney said. "There are only so many ways of killing someone. You don't know what is available at the time. You have to be careful concluding things from what we have."
The major also said that it was not unusual for a person to be criminally active and then inactive for a period of time. Other than one day in January 2004, Brown has been on the streets since August 2002, according to court records.
"That is one of the reasons we are interested in him," McLarney said. "But there are others we're looking at."
Earlier this month, McLarney formed a task force to investigate unsolved homicide cases, mostly involving female prostitutes. Detectives have "cast a wide net" and are also investigating open cases of sexual assault, he said.
melissa.harris@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Annie Linskey contributed to this article.
