Armando Santiago, 42, was found dead in an alley in South Baltimore on Friday, Sept. 16, 2011. The Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists the location as the 700 block of West Patapsco Avenue, while the Sun's news report placed the alley in the rear of the 700 block of East Patapsco Avenue. An autopsy found that he had died of asphyxiation. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Sun's homicide database lists his death as a homicide.
According to the Baltimore Sun,
Santiago was "found unresponsive at about 6:15 p.m. Friday in an alley" in the Brooklyn neighborhood. He lived in the 5600 block of Park Road in Glen Burnie, just across the city line in Anne Arundel County. The Sun reported that "there were no signs of foul play or trauma to his body, but police say an autopsy shows that he had been strangled."
That detail matters. A man found in an alley with no visible injuries might at first have been treated as a natural death or an overdose. Only the medical examiner's work turned it into a homicide case, which suggests that whoever was responsible may have had a head start of several days before detectives knew they were looking for a killer.
Police told the Sun they did not have any additional information about the case as detectives investigated. The paper also noted that about eight hours after Santiago was found, a 25-year-old man was shot in the head in the nearby 700 block of Pontiac Avenue, but police said they did not believe the two cases were connected. The public record does not say why Santiago was in Brooklyn that day, who he had been with, or how long he had been in the alley before he was found.
A memorial page for an Armando Santiago dated Sept. 16, 2011, was posted by Gonce Funeral Service, a funeral home that lists a Baltimore address in the 21225 ZIP code, which takes in Brooklyn. The page appears to be his, though it offers no details about his life. Armando Santiago is a fairly common name, and searches turn up many other men who share it.
Brooklyn sits at the southern edge of Baltimore, near the Anne Arundel County line, with Patapsco Avenue serving as one of its main commercial streets. The neighborhood's closeness to Glen Burnie may explain why a man who lived there was in the area, though nothing in the record says so.
Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Armando Santiago could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who saw him in Brooklyn or Glen Burnie in mid-September 2011, or who noticed anything unusual in the alleys behind Patapsco Avenue that week, may hold information that matters. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
