Crime & Safety
Father of Missing Baltimore County Girl Charged in Mother's Murder: Police
Police also provided more information on the murder of the Bobbie Jo Cortez—the girl's mother—and broadened the search for Caitlyn Marie Virts, 11.
Baltimore County police said Friday morning that officials have obtained an arrest warrant in connection with the death of Bobbie Jo Cortez, 36, in Dundalk on Thursday.
The arrest warrant for Timothy Howard Virts, 38, charges him with first-degree murder in the death of Cortez, the Baltimore County Police Department said Friday.
Cortez had "multiple cut wounds to her upper body" when police found her dead in her home Thursday morning in the 3100 block of Ardee Way in Dundalk, according to a statement the Baltimore County Police Department issued Friday.
The official cause of death will be determined by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where an autopsy is scheduled for Friday, police said.
When police responded to Cortez's home on Thursday, missing from the home were the woman's daughter, 11-year-old Caitlyn Marie Virts; Caitlyn’s father, 38-year-old Timothy Howard Virts; and a 1999 Dodge Durango with Maryland license plate 5AJ4458, according to the Baltimore County Police Department.
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An Amber Alert for Caitlyn Marie Virts was issued Thursday and authorities say they think her father may have abducted her. Baltimore County has since reached out to other law enforcement agencies, from the local to the federal level, for assistance in the investigation, police said.
An Amber Alert for Caitlyn Marie Virts was issued in West Virginia after 8 p.m. Thursday, according to WVVA, the NBC affiliate out of West Virginia.
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The vehicle Caitlyn and Timothy Virts are believed to be in is a black Dodge Durango registered to Daniel Williams Cortez, 38, the deceased woman's husband. He was indicted Wednesday on charges including sex abuse involving a minor, WBAL reported. Cortez is at the Baltimore County Detention Center on various sex offense charges and police said they do not know what, if any, relationship Cortez has with Timothy Virts and this homicide case.
Baltimore County police ask anyone with information to call 410-307-2020.
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