By Michelle Richardson, Special to the AFRO
Marco Holmes, 24, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder of Tanja Chadwick, 20, in early 2017. The sentenced was handed down July 19.
Holmes was found guilty of Second Degree murder. The 50-year sentence is the maximum penalty offered in the state of Maryland.

Marco Holmes (left), was recently sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend, Tanja Chadwick. (Courtesy Photo)

Chadwick, the mother of a then 4-year-old, and aspiring nurse, was dating Holmes when he shot the young woman and then dumped her body.
On January 28, 2017, Chadwick left a relative’s house “to go meet her boyfriend Marco” at the apartment that the couple shared. Chadwick left her son with family that weekend and that was the last time her family heard from her.
Several days later, Chadwick’s body was found in West Baltimore’s Daisy Field, buried under leaves and heavy tree branches.
An autopsy confirmed Chadwick was killed with a single gunshot to the forehead. She also had bruising on her biceps and hands
The chief medical examiner stated “the suspect’s DNA was under the victim’s fingernails.”
Chadwick’s family grew suspicious and filed a missing person report with police when Holmes said the young mother never came to meet him and calls to her cell phone kept going to voicemail.
Chadwick’s cell phone was eventually found by a maintenance worker at the Mannasota Manor Apartment complex, less than a mile from the couple’s apartment.
“While nothing can bring this mother back to her young child, I pray this sentence brings some peace of mind to this family who has had to endure the unimaginable,” said Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby in a statement.
“This defendant not only killed this young mother but deceived her family, and he will be locked away from society for a very long time, as he deserves,” the statement also said.
Holmes has also been charged with the use of a firearm in a crime of violence and carrying, transporting, or wearing a handgun.

BERKELEY (KPIX) – New video shows a group of women swarming through Lululemon, a popular athletic clothing store and yanking clothes off the shelf before taking off.
More than a dozen Lululemon stores in the Bay Area have been hit in the same way and police say the suspects are still on the loose.
The Lululemon store on Fourth Street in Berkeley is having an unlucky July. Police say this group of thieves has struck four times here since July 2nd, stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise.
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Surveillance video shows the latest crime on July 18.
The group of women enter the store, move right for the shelves and begin shoveling yoga gear into bags. Police say these thefts all happened in the early afternoons between 1 pm and 4 pm.
“They take the merchandise, put it in a bag and walk out. Most of these thefts are happening within a minute,” said Berkeley Police Department spokesman Byron White.
It’s not just Berkeley. This weekend at a LuLulemon store in Fresno, police said a group of women walked in together, went directly over to the yoga pants shelves, and quickly emptied them.
Each pair of yoga pants at Lululemon costs from $100 to $150 dollars The thieves stole 148 pairs. Police say the Fresno crew got away with $17,000 dollars in athletic gear.
Police believe both crimes are possibly related.
Fresno police say the thefts fit the pattern of similar crimes in some Bay Area Lululemon stores, in Berkeley, San Jose, Palo Alto, San Mateo and Gilroy. Most of the crimes are caught on video. The criminals have not been caught.
“It seems that they already know exactly what it is that they want,” said White. “But in some of the videos you just see that they are just grabbing everything that they could fit into their bags.”
Anyone who recognizes the women in the video should contact Berkeley Police right away.