Two women wanted in connection with the homicide of 67-year-old Hilde Henderson in Montgomery County have been arrested in Ohio following a nationwide search.
According to Montgomery County Police, 29-year-old Vanessa Wahanganisa Tjongarero-Henderson of Clarksburg and 36-year-old Samantha Raebel of Phoenix, Arizona, were taken into custody on Wednesday, June 10, by the Genoa Police Department after a local resident recognized them from media coverage and a Montgomery County Police news release.
The arrests stem from the death of Henderson, whose body was discovered on Monday, May 26, inside her apartment at the Charter House in the 1300 block of Fenwick Lane in Silver Spring. Montgomery County Police officers responding to a welfare check found Henderson deceased inside the residence.
Henderson was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, where an autopsy determined her cause of death was blunt force trauma and ruled the manner of death a homicide. Investigators believe Henderson was killed on Friday, May 22.
Police said evidence recovered during the investigation led Major Crimes Division detectives to obtain arrest warrants for Tjongarero-Henderson and Raebel on May 27, charging both women with first-degree murder.
A nationwide search followed, with media coverage and law enforcement alerts extending into Ohio, Tennessee, and Arizona. Detectives received multiple tips from several states before the suspects were ultimately located in Genoa, Ohio.
Tjongarero-Henderson and Raebel are currently being held at the Ottawa County Detention Center and are awaiting extradition to Maryland.
