D.C. man convicted of murdering a mother whose body has not been found
10/07/2022 1:44 pm PDT
WASHINGTON (TCD) -- A 57-year-old man was recently convicted of murdering his 34-year-old girlfriend in 2020, but her body has not yet been found.
Olga Ooro was last seen on Thursday, July 16, 2020, in the 300 block of Massachusetts Avenue, the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department announced in a news release. Police posted a picture of Ooro and said she was officially reported missing three days after she was last seen.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the victim’s boyfriend, Darnell Sterling, attacked Ooro in the early morning hours of July 17, 2020, inside her home on Massachusetts Avenue while her 7-year-old son was asleep in his bedroom.
Ooro’s body has never been found. The Attorney’s Office said Sterling "cleaned up the crime scene and left the building," and the next day, he went back to her apartment to get her body and dispose of the remains.
The victim’s 7-year-old son was reportedly found wandering the apartment building. A day after the attack, on Saturday, July 18, the boy told police his mother left for dinner with Sterling on Thursday, July 16, and he hadn’t seen her since, WRIC-TV reports.
The boy’s biological father reportedly told detectives it was not like Ooro to leave their son alone for any duration of time.
When Sterling was interviewed, he said he met with Ooro on July 17, with plans to go gamble in Ocean City, but as she was getting ready to leave, they allegedly got into a fight, WRIC reports. Sterling claimed he went to Ocean City, Maryland, and slept on the beach. He also reportedly said his cellphone was stolen and he stayed in Ocean City until July 18.
According to WRIC, surveillance video revealed Sterling going into Ooro’s apartment on July 17, but he left three hours later, alone, with a black trash bag. Authorities were reportedly able to track Sterling’s license plate and noted that he did go to Ocean City, but he came back that night, and he traveled there again on July 18.
In the early morning hours of July 18, before he went to Ocean City a second time, surveillance video reportedly showed Sterling using Ooro’s key to get into her apartment, and then he was seen leaving with a cart and a large object wrapped in a blanket.
On Oct. 3, the Attorney’s Office announced Sterling was found guilty of second-degree murder and a related charge of contempt. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2023.
According to the Attorney’s Office, at the time of the crime, Sterling was ordered by the court to stay away from Ooro stemming from an alleged assault on April 20, 2020.
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