In the late summer of 2021, a concerned family member's call for a welfare check led to a grim discovery in a Temple Hills, Maryland apartment. On Sunday, August 29, 2021, police entered the residence of 71-year-old Johnetta Wormley on Brinkley Road and found her unresponsive, having suffered significant trauma. Tragically, she was pronounced dead at the scene, and what began as a death investigation was quickly ruled a homicide.
The Prince George's County Police Department identified her son, 53-year-old John Frederick Carrington, as the primary suspect in her death. Evidence suggested that Wormley had been strangled to death, and her apartment appeared to have been ransacked.
The investigation into Johnetta Wormley's murder revealed a pattern of violent behavior from her son. In the days leading up to his mother's death, Carrington was also charged in connection with a domestic-related stabbing of another woman in Clinton, who fortunately survived her injuries. He was also accused of attempting to rob a gas station on Old Branch Avenue in Clinton. With a warrant issued for his arrest on a charge of first-degree murder in his mother's death, a manhunt for Carrington began. He was considered armed and dangerous, with no fixed address. The search came to an end on Wednesday, September 1, 2021, when he was apprehended in Washington, D.C., by a fugitive task force and awaited extradition back to Prince George's County.
Following his arrest, the case against John Frederick Carrington took a shocking turn as he was linked to several cold case homicides in the District of Columbia. During an interview with detectives, Carrington "essentially confessed" to three other killings dating back decades, providing details that only someone involved in the crimes would know. These included the 1992 stabbing death of 29-year-old Charles Boulware, the 2008 shooting death of 42-year-old Reginald Gaither, and the 2010 shooting death of 25-year-old James Campbell. As a result, in addition to the murder charge for his mother's death, Carrington faced two counts of first-degree murder while armed and one count of felony murder for these previously unsolved cases. While the arrest and the litany of charges brought against Carrington brought some measure of resolution to the initial shock of Johnetta Wormley's death, the final disposition of the case against him for the murder of his mother, including details of a trial, conviction, or sentencing, are not available in public online sources.
