New Arrests In Strangulation Of A Silver Spring Teen In 2017 Include His Twin Sisters

SILVER SPRING, MD — Three people have been arrested and charged in connection with the 2017 killing of 17-year-old Christian Leroy Matthews in Silver Spring.

Lemae Markia Matthews and Leaundra Kim Matthews, 23-year-old twin sisters, and Daniel Juwan Howard, 25, have all been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The Matthews twins are the victim's sisters.

Tysean Lipford, now 24, was charged in connection with the murder in 2017, and was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2019, Montgomery County Police said.

On March 21, 2017, police responded to calls of a "suspicious situation" in the 1000 block of Mondrian Terrace and found Christian Matthews in an apartment, unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital, and a medical examiner determined the cause of death to be strangulation.

At the time of Christian Matthews' death, his sister told investigators they heard a commotion coming from the basement, where their brother lived. They then called 911.

Lipford, identified as the father of the victim's niece, allegedly confessed to the killing, police said in 2017.