Missing DC Actress, Yoga Teacher Found Dead in Car Trunk After Police Receive Tip
The body of Tricia Lynn McCauley, 46, was found in her car by the Washington D.C. police just after midnight on Tuesday. Authorities said that she had been beaten and strangled to death.
Police arrested Adrian Duane Johnson, a 29-year-old from Marlboro, Maryland, who was driving McCauley's white Scion iQ car with her body in the trunk. He was charged with first-degree felony murder and Theft among other crimes.
Tricia McCauley, an actress and yoga teacher, was reported missing after she failed to show up at a Christmas Day party. She also missed a flight out of the Ronald Reagan National Airport the following morning, prompting alarm from friends and family.
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Jonathan Padget, who had seen the "critical missing alert" for McCauley issued by the police on Tuesday morning, called 911 after noticing the number plate on a car that matched the alert's description, according to WJLA.
He later told reporters that the driver suspect was smoking and blasting loud music in the car which prompted him to take a closer look. "It was very frightening, but it's just one of those moments you know that 'I'm here to do something, I have to something and make sure it's effective'," he said.
The responding officers found the car parked in the 2200 block of M Street NW in West End a few minutes later. They confronted the suspect in a nearby CVS store and asked him for the car's keys to which he complied. They arrested Johnson after finding McCauley's body in the trunk, reports the Daily Mail.
Police have been unable to establish a link between Johnson and his victim. It has been revealed that he should have been wearing a court-ordered GPS monitoring device at the time the crime was committed.
Johnson, who has multiple robbery and theft arrests in DC and Maryland, was released from 3 days of detainment on a theft charge on Dec. 20 under the condition that he be fitted with a GPS ankle monitor the next day, according to WUSA9.
A law enforcement spokesperson confirmed that Johnson failed to show up for the fitting of the device, but no bench warrant was issued in his name.
