Do you know who murdered 23 year old Christopher Abraham Mader in 2004? On the early morning of Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2004, Christopher Abraham Mader, a 23-year-old male, was driving home from his job as a bartender at Bennigan's Grill and Tavern in Waldorf, Maryland. At approximately 3 a.m., as he was nearing his Hampshire neighborhood at the intersection of Smallwood Drive and St. Stephen's Drive, he was fatally shot.
His vehicle then veered off the road and crashed into a sign and a powerbox.
For years, the case remained unsolved, becoming a cold case despite aggressive investigative efforts and national attention from shows like 'America's Most Wanted'. A significant reward was offered for information that could lead to an arrest, growing to $60,000 through donations from family and local organizations. The investigation was pursued by the Charles County Sheriff's Office, who followed various leads over the years.
A breakthrough in the case came in early 2010 when new information surfaced, pointing to Matthew Derek Correll as the person responsible for Mader's death. Investigators determined that Correll had killed Mader during an attempted robbery. In October 2010, a Charles County Grand Jury indicted Correll on six counts, including first-degree murder and attempted robbery. He was arrested on October 22 of that year.
Further investigation led to the identification of a second suspect, Shawn Marshall Myers, 33, of Waldorf. In April 2011, a grand jury issued a five-count indictment against Myers, charging him with first-degree murder, handgun use, attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Myers was already incarcerated on an unrelated charge at the time he was charged in connection with Mader's murder.
On June 29, 2012, after a four-day trial, a Charles County jury convicted Matthew Derek Correll of first-degree murder, use of a handgun in a crime of violence, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery. In August 2012, Correll was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The conviction brought a sense of closure to Christopher Mader's family, who had waited nearly eight years for justice.
