Patapsco River

Baltimore police have charged three people - a Pikesville woman and two men already in federal custody - with the 2009 homicide of a man who was kidnapped and held for ransom, and later found dead in the Patapsco River. Among those charged is Darryl Nichols, 37, who has been tied to the case since the first day Eric Pendergrass went missing and was convicted on ammunition charges related to search warrants executed during the investigation. Pendergrass had been abducted Feb. 1, 2009, and called his girlfriend and said she needed to retrieve a bundle of money from a closet in her home and give it to a courier named “Darlene.” The girlfriend delivered the money to Pendergrass' mother's home in Northwest Baltimore, where a woman who identified herself as “Darlene” took the money and climbed into a silver-colored Cadillac STS. Witnesses recorded the license plate number, and police discovered that the vehicle was registered to Nichols.

A pair of Baltimore residents filed suit Monday accusing the city of breaking the law by allowing toxic chemicals to leach into the Patapsco River from the South Baltimore site where a casino is now under construction. The lawsuit is the second to raise environmental concerns about development of the Horseshoe casino on Russell Street. It contends that the city's deal with CBAC Gaming, a coalition led by Caeser's Entertainment, exposes city taxpayers to having to pay for cleaning up contamination from the site.

A partially buried body was discovered by a fisherman in a wooded area of Anne Arundel County Saturday. State police said a fisherman stumbled upon the body about a half mile from River Road, near the Patapsco River in a wooded area in Linthicum. Police have not released the person's identity or a cause of death. jkanderson@baltsun.com

Federal officials announced Friday a major expansion of the “ urban waters ” initiative they kicked off in Baltimore nearly two years ago, adding 11 new blighted water ways around the country to the seven they've already pledged to help clean up and redevelop, including the Patapsco River. Representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency and 12 other federal agencies gathered for the announcement this time in Grand Rapids, Mich. A group of kayakers there has teamed up with a private engineering firm to push a $27 million white-water park on the Grand River flowing through the city's downtown.

Baltimore police Wednesday morning pulled a body out of the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River near South Hanover Street, according to a department spokesman. A passer-by spotted the victim shortly before 10 a.m. floating near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge and Cromwell Street, just off the southern edge of Port Covington. Police were still at the scene at 10:15 a.m., and no further details were immediately available. peter.hermann@baltsun.com

Baltimore County utility crews dealt with yet another sewage spill at the Patapsco Sewage Pumping Station in Baltimore Highlands. About 525,000 gallons of sewage spilled from a 54-inch concrete pipe Saturday into the lower Patapsco River. The county spent $500,000 to replace aging pipes earlier this month after a main conduit ruptured in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene and poured about 100 million gallons of raw sewage into the river over the course of a week. Crews discovered a joint failure in the new piping last week and the overflow occurred during the ensuing repair for a few hours early Saturday morning.

Two people were rescued from a 38-foot fishing boat after it collided with an object in the Patapsco River near Fort Smallwood State Park in Anne Arundel County on Friday, Coast Guard officials said. Thomas H. Tolson Sr., 49, of Severn and John L. Sullivan Jr., 60, of Columbia were pulled from the boat at about 2:30 p.m. When the Coast Guard crew began pumping water from the boat, the water was already up to the boaters' knees and began to wash over the sides. The crew was forced to remove the lines and the fishing boat capsized, officials said.

In the end, it was chicken on a string that brought a wayward "alligator" out of the Patapsco River. A two-hour search on Monday evening by Natural Resources Police failed to find a trace of the critter. But Eric Hammack Jr., the 16-year-old fisherman who first reported the reptile on Sunday, returned to the pond off Belle Grove Road in Patapsco Valley State Park on Tuesday. He had decided to try luring the gator with a hunk of chicken on a string. "It was a chicken wing," said Hammack, who lives nearby in Pumphrey and fishes in the park often.

After searching for about an hour, Baltimore police divers found a vehicle in the the Patapsco River late last night that fell into the water while being towed around the terminal at 2901 Childs St., Sgt. Curtis Moore said. The divers determined there was no one trapped in the vehicle, which was submerged in 30 feet of water, Moore said. The vehicle didn't round a turn and fell into the river, Moore said.

Maryland Natural Resources police have interviewed the young fisherman who reported spying an alligator in the Patapsco River. And they say they believe him. But a preliminary search of the area late Monday failed to turn up any further evidence of the tropical reptile. "We believe the gentleman. That's why we sent an officer out to investigate," said Sgt. Art Windemuth, spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources Police. Animal control officers also joined the search. But no alligator appeared.

A Valentine's Day auction has been scheduled for developer Patrick Turner's Westport Waterfront site. The auction house A.J. Billig and Co. is advertising that sale of the roughly 43-acre property will take place Feb. 14 on the steps of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse downtown. The property is eight parcels but will be sold as a single unit, according to the auction materials . A $500,000 deposit will be required at the time of purchase. In November, lender Citigroup Global Markets Realty Corp.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge has given the go-ahead for Citigroup to sell property in South Baltimore's Westport neighborhood that is owned by developer Patrick Turner, according to court records. In November, lender Citigroup Global Markets Realty Corp. filed a foreclosure action against Turner-affiliated companies, alleging they owed nearly $32 million on a 2007 loan. Several parcels of land -- 2401 through 2417 Kloman Street -- were secured as collateral for the loan, according to court records.

A broken sewer line in Catonsville that went undetected for three weeks after the storm called Sandy passed through the area poured nearly 1.3 million gallons of raw waste into a tributary of the Patapsco River, Baltimore County officials reported Wednesday. County workers discovered the spill Tuesday on the grounds of Spring Grove Hospital Center after a neighboring resident complained about sewage odors to the Maryland Department of the Environment, which relayed the information, according to David Fidler, spokesman for the county's Department of Public Works.

Police are investigating the discovery of a body found in the woods in Middle Branch Park in South Baltimore. A man's body was found in a wooded area off a trail at about 11:30 a.m., police said. The man appeared to have suffered trauma, and the body will be transported to the medical examiner for further investigation. At the scene, overlooking the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River, officers could be seen talking with a group of young people, with an officer walking one person out of the woods.

Proving once again that it's always better to be late than not at all, the state has finally completed a new "nature area" at Masonville Cove , the second act in a $153 million restoration of a longtime dumping ground on the southern side of Baltimore's harbor. Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and assorted dignitaries turned out Wednesday to mark the official opening of the 11-acre waterfront park, which features walking trails and a pier for fishing or launching canoes and kayaks.  Brown joined students from the Friendship Academy in planting wetland grasses along a shoreline once strewn with rubble but now covered with a layer of clean white sand.

My column several weeks ago on the brutal 1956 murder of Myrtle Agnes Bopst brought a flood of emails from people who vividly remembered it. One reader, Turney McKnight, recalled the murder a year later of a Baltimore socialite at the hands of her husband, a lumber executive. After attending a cocktail party June 1, Robert Jett Van Horn, 52, and his wife of two years, Bernice Ward Flynn Van Horn, 53, decided not to spend the night at Eden Hall Apartments at 3401 Greenway, but at Evergreen Farm, their second home, on Falls Road near Shawan in northern Baltimore County.

A pipeline carrying raw sewage from a western Baltimore County pumping station to a treatment plant in the city has spilled more than 70 million gallons into the Patapsco River since it ruptured over the weekend. The county said the breach, reported late Sunday, would be repaired by Friday at a cost of about $250,000. A neighbor of the Patapsco Pumping Station on Old Annapolis Road in Baltimore Highlands reported the spill soon after it occurred, officials said. Baltimore County hired Spiniello Companies, Inc., a concrete contractor, to replace the 54-inch concrete pipe and another smaller pipe was found to be damaged.

Baltimore police have charged three people - a Pikesville woman and two men already in federal custody - with the 2009 homicide of a man who was kidnapped and held for ransom, and later found dead in the Patapsco River. Among those charged is Darryl Nichols, 37, who has been tied to the case since the first day Eric Pendergrass went missing and was convicted on ammunition charges related to search warrants executed during the investigation. Pendergrass had been abducted Feb. 1, 2009, and called his girlfriend and said she needed to retrieve a bundle of money from a closet in her home and give it to a courier named “Darlene.” The girlfriend delivered the money to Pendergrass' mother's home in Northwest Baltimore, where a woman who identified herself as “Darlene” took the money and climbed into a silver-colored Cadillac STS. Witnesses recorded the license plate number, and police discovered that the vehicle was registered to Nichols.

Baltimore County is set to resume testing certain recreational waters for harmful bacteria, two years after budget cuts ended the monitoring. The county is mandated by the federal government to sample water at public bathing beaches - those with lifeguards and shower and restroom facilities, county health department spokeswoman Monique Lyle said. Now, it plans to expand testing to recreational waters that are not required to be monitored, including Back River, Bear Creek, Bird River and parts of the Patapsco River.