In late January of 2017, the life of 20-year-old Tonja Chadwick was tragically cut short in Baltimore, Maryland. A devoted mother to a four-year-old son, she had recently completed a program to become a geriatric nursing assistant with aspirations of attending nursing school. She had just moved into a Parkside Gardens apartment with her boyfriend, 22-year-old Marco Holmes, a week before she vanished.
The last time her family saw her was on the evening of Saturday, January 28, 2017, when she dropped her son off at her aunt's house.
Concern grew when Tonja, who was known for being in constant contact with her family, did not answer phone calls or text messages. The day after she was last seen, Holmes went to her aunt's house without Tonja, claiming she never arrived at their apartment. This was the beginning of a week-long search that would end in heartbreak. Her family's fears were amplified when a maintenance man at another apartment complex found Tonja's cellphone. Police were contacted, and an investigation began. Upon searching the apartment Tonja and Holmes shared, investigators discovered a crime scene. There were bloodstains that someone had attempted to clean, and the bedding was missing. This discovery led police to consider her a 'critically missing person' and name her boyfriend, Marco Holmes, as a person of interest.
On February 2, 2017, Tonja Chadwick's body was found in a wooded area of Daisy Park in Southwest Baltimore. She was wrapped in bedding and had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, along with other trauma to her body. The investigation quickly zeroed in on Holmes, who had a history of violent crimes. Evidence against him mounted, including a history of unreported domestic violence between the couple. Surveillance video from a laundromat captured a heated argument between Holmes and Tonja on the night she disappeared, showing him grabbing her and taking her phone. Cellphone records placed both of them at their apartment until later that evening, after which Tonja's phone remained at the apartment while Holmes' phone traveled to the area where her body was later discovered.
Marco Holmes was arrested on an unrelated probation violation and was subsequently charged with first and second-degree murder, first-degree assault, and gun charges in connection with Tonja Chadwick's death. In July 2018, he was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison. The prosecution presented a case that detailed a violent end to a troubled relationship, culminating in a young mother's life being taken and her body being discarded in a park.
