Two women found dead in their Northeast Baltimore house Wednesday evening were killed days before the couple had planned to move and shortly after they had argued with a stripper they had taken in and later evicted, the property manager and neighbors said Thursday.
A daughter and niece of an upstairs neighbor found the bodies after breaking into the first-floor apartment to investigate an odor that grew so strong that people living next door lit scented candles.
The couple, who recently married in Boston, had not been seen since Saturday.
The niece said she found the women lying face-down on their bed, fully clothed. Their dog, a small white poodle named Princey, was on the floor next to them.
"He was just standing there, looking," said the woman, who was fearful of giving her name.
Baltimore police remained tight-lipped about their investigation, refusing to release the victims' ages, how they were killed and under what circumstances, though a source confirmed some of the details reported by the neighbors. The victims' names were withheld pending notification of relatives.
A police spokesman said the deaths have been ruled homicides, the city's 100th and 101 killings of the year.
In one new development, police said the women's car, a light-blue Dodge Neon, was found Thursday morning parked two blocks from the house where the slayings occurred, off Belair Road in the 4000 block of Biddison Lane, in the Waltherson neighborhood.
Police had left blue evidence tape stuck on the front door and window of the house; a fold-up card table and a small outdoor pink children's table with two folding chairs were on the porch.
Joyce Samuel, whose daughter lives above the slain couple, said the front window had been open and a side window leading to the basement appeared to have been forced open.
There was a for-sale sign on the front lawn that Samuel said had been placed there by a woman Wednesday afternoon, hours before her daughter discovered the bodies and after police said the women had been killed.
A call to the real-estate agent was returned by the property manager, who said the slain couple knew the house was being sold.
"They were just planning on moving, they said they didn't want to be in Baltimore," said Miki Scholtes. "They told us they were going to be out of that place by the end of this week."
The owner of the house, identified in city tax records as Richard D. McConnell of Brooklyn, N.Y., could not be reached for comment.
Samuel, who is planning a candlelight vigil for the victims tonight, described the couple as quiet and reserved, but also as nice to children.
She said they moved to the house a little more than a year ago and that both had worked as security guards, but were most recently unemployed.
"They were real quiet people," Samuel said. "They stayed to themselves and didn't have any loud parties. They didn't have any parties at all."
Samuel said the stripper moved in in late May but was kicked out after an argument about two weeks ago.
Police would not comment on whether they are investigating that as a possible motive.
