Unidentified Woman

I f someone I don't immediately recognize greets me with a big "hello," I always respond enthusiastically, figuring it's just a matter of time before I make some sort of association and remember that person's first name. Usually, this method works out quite well. But a few weeks ago, it worked out in such a way that it inspired this week's column. I was sitting at a high school winter concert with my husband, enjoying the choral music as best I could without falling into a deep, snoring sleep.

An unidentified woman whose body was found covered with leaves and snow alongside a road in Southwest Baltimore was shot to death, police said yesterday.Detective Kirk Hastings said an autopsy at the state medical examiner's office yesterday showed the woman, who was in her 40s and fully clothed, was shot several times in the upper body and dumped in a woods in Leakin Park about 10 feet off the 4500 block of Hutton Ave. near Wetheredsville Road.Hastings said the woman was killed before Wednesday's snowfall.

An unidentified woman was stabbed to death yesterday evening in a Bolton Hill apartment building, Baltimore police said.Homicide detectives said that the woman, believed to be in her late 20s or early 30s, was stabbed more than 50 times in an apartment building in the 1800 block of Eutaw Place.Detectives said it appeared that the killer had attempted to dismember the woman, who was found in a second-floor hallway about 6 p.m. Police were interviewing a man who lives in the apartment building last night but had not brought any charges.

The body of an unidentified woman was found along a rural road in Harford County yesterday morning, and police were treating her death as an apparent homicide. A motorist looking for deer spotted the body in the 1400 block of Stepney Road near Aberdeen about 7:05 a.m., said Edward Hopkins, a spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Department. He said he had no description of the woman, and no identification was found. Hopkins said police could not be sure of a cause of death until after an autopsy, which was not expected to be performed until today.

An autopsy on the skeletal remains of an unidentified woman found inside an abandoned West Baltimore building last week has determined that the death was a homicide - the result of a blow to the head, city police said yesterday. Officers responding to the 1500 block of Warwick Ave. on Dec. 30 found the upper half of the skeleton in a chair and the remaining bones scattered nearby, apparently by animals, police said. The autopsy indicated that the victim was African-American, in her 20s and about 5 feet 2 inches tall, and police said they were checking missing person reports in hopes of identifying her.

A 22-year-old woman was injured early Saturday after a vehicle fleeing police drove onto the sidewalk after the second night of the Greek folk festival, police said. Police were called to the 4800 block of Eastern Ave. about 2 a.m. after a woman said a man who made a lewd comment at her pulled out a handgun and pointed it at her and her boyfriend, according to an incident report. As witnesses notified security for the Greek Folk Festival, the man and three others fled in a 1999 BMW. With the 500 block of S. Ponca St. closed to traffic because of the festival, the car veered onto the sidewalk and up a ramp in front of St. Nicholas Church.

Three people were killed in the city over the weekend, including two people shot in unrelated incidents a few blocks apart in Northwest Baltimore and an unidentified woman who apparently was strangled before her body was dumped in Leakin Park, police reported.The latest incident, shortly past 1 a.m. yesterday, claimed the life of 16-year-old Jonathan Butcher, who was gunned down as he walked out of a rowhouse six doors from his home in the 2600 block of Keyworth Ave.Police said the youth and a companion, Tavon Davis, 18, were sprayed with gunfire by two men armed with large-caliber handguns.

Firefighters putting out a blaze in a West Baltimore home yesterday morning discovered the body of a woman who detectives believe died before the fire was set, city police said.A cause of death on the unidentified woman in her 30s was not determined after an autopsy, and police said the body had no signs of trauma. A spokeswoman said the woman, found partly clothed and lying on a bedroom floor, had lived in the house.Firefighters were called to the house in the 1500 block of Mountmor Court about 4: 45 a.m. to extinguish a fire in the bedroom.

An unidentified woman was struck and killed by a Maryland Transit Administration bus yesterday morning in Fullerton, police and MTA officials said. The No. 55 bus on the Fox Ridge-to-Towson University route was heading west on Fullerton Avenue and made a left onto Belair Road heading south "when the six passengers aboard said they heard a thump," said MTA spokesman Richard E. Solli. "The bus operator immediately stopped. When they looked behind them, they saw a woman lying in the street," Solli said.

An undetermined amount of cash is missing and at least one city employee is facing disciplinary action as a result of a continuing investigation at the municipal vehicle impoundment lot on Pulaski Highway, Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for the Department of Public Works, said yesterday.Kocher, who said that the investigation was being conducted by the agency and Police Department, declined to say how much money was missing but sources put the amount at more than $1,300.Earlier this year, a municipal employee pleaded guilty to charges of stealing $21,000 from impoundment lot receipts.