Neighbors Relieved After New Suspect Identified in Marcum Homicide

The Glen Echo Heights and Mohican Hills neighborhoods are breathing a sigh of relief after news last week that a has been identified in the murder of American University professor Sue Marcum.

Marcum, 52, was in her Massachusetts Avenue home Oct. 25. Police initially characterized the homicide as a robbery gone wrong. They arrested 18-year-old Deandrew Hamlin, who was in the District, but Hamlin has never been charged in her murder.

The seemingly random nature of the crime left the community concerned, according to Harold Pfohl, president of the Glen Echo Heights Citizens Association. “There was a heightened sense of the need for security and there remains a heightened concern in that regard,” Pfohl said.

The concern was compounded by a that included multiple tire slashings and an at the Washington Waldorf school, though the incidents were unrelated to Marcum’s homicide, Pfohl said.

However, since Friday’s news that Marcum’s former yoga and Spanish instructor is suspected in the crime, “there’s a considerable sense of relief that it was targeted, rather than random,” Pfohl said.

Pfohl praised the Montgomery County Police Department for responding to the community’s safety concerns. A in the weeks following Marcum’s homicide packed the Washington Waldorf School, and Pfohl said the community is continuing to follow safety tips offered to them by police.

Jorge Rueda Landeros, 41, of Juarez, Mexico, is charged in an international warrant in Marcum’s homicide. Landeros and Marcum were people close to Marcum have said.

Montgomery County police believe Landeros is in his native Mexico, and are working with Mexican and federal authorities to have him arrested and transported back to Maryland.