After Body Found in Sparks, Pa. Man Charged in Girlfriend's Murder

Sparks, MD — A Pennsylvania woman who was reported missing over the weekend was found deceased in Baltimore County, and now her boyfriend is charged with first-degree murder, according to police.

Rebekah Jea Strausbaugh, 30, went to Baltimore for the weekend. When she did not return by 3:15 p.m. on Sunday, June 26, a relative called York Area Regional Township Police to report her as missing, according to Cpl. John Wachter of the Baltimore County Police Department.

The relative had last seen Strausbaugh on Friday, June 24.

Police went to the woman's home in the 200 block of Cambridge Drive in Red Lion, Pa., and spoke with her boyfriend, who also lived there. The boyfriend, Michael Anthony Morant, 48, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder.

Police said Morant went to Baltimore on Saturday, June 25, and after finding his girlfriend at Shake Shack on Pratt Street by the Inner Harbor, they got into his car and headed north on Interstate 83.

The couple argued in the car, and Morant pulled off in the area of Ensor Mill and Belfast roads in Sparks, where their fight got physical and ultimately left Strausbaugh unresponsive, according to police.

Morant dragged his girlfriend's body into the woods and covered her with a blanket, police allege.

At 10:27 p.m. on Monday, homicide detectives found the body in the woods in the 15500 block of Ensor Mill Road, Wachter told Patch.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and determined Strausbaugh's death was a homicide caused by strangulation, police reported.

Morant is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. He has a preliminary hearing in the case on July 22.

Pictured, booking photo of Michael Morant. Photo courtesy of Baltimore County Police Department.