The month-long search for Mariame Toure Sylla, a longtime Greenbelt teacher who went missing on an evening walk at Schrom Hills Park on July 29, drew to a tragic close on Friday when police announced they had identified her remains.
During a press conference on Friday, September 1, Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz announced remains found in a park on Old Alexandria Ferry Road in Clinton have been identified as Sylla’s. The remains were found on August 1 on some rocks by a pond. DNA is still being processed but provided enough preliminary results to positively identify the remains as Sylla’s, they announced Friday. Police reported she had been decapitated and dismembered. An autopsy to determine cause of death is still being conducted.
James Spence, principal of Dora Kennedy French Immersion School where Sylla taught, and Sylla’s sister from the Ivory Coast, Fatma Toure, were present for the press conference.
Landon Charged
Harold Francis Landon III, 33, of University Park, has been charged with Sylla’s murder, police also announced at the same press conference. He’s been in custody on domestic violence charges since August 1, arrested the day after they believe he dumped Sylla’s remains. Police do not believe he and Sylla knew each other.
Identifying Landon
Around 9:30 p.m. on July 31 a witness saw a man dumping something from his white pickup truck at the park in Clinton and then cleaning his hands in the pond, police shared. The witness took a photo and reported the incident to police. Surveillance video from the park confirmed the presence of the pickup truck and revealed the driver turned off the headlights as he drove toward the pond. Cellphone records place Landon at the park in Clinton around 9:30 p.m. on Monday, July 31 and at Schrom Hills Park around 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 29, when Sylla was thought to be walking there. Police say he has also been identified in the photo and surveillance video by people who know him. Power tools, including a reciprocating saw, were found at his residence in University Park.
Landon has several previous arrests, including for domestic violence. Records show there was a previous restraining order from May this year, related to domestic violence, that included the surrender of firearms, though it was dismissed at the request of the petitioner nine days later. He is currently incarcerated on further domestic violence charges, to which the charges of first- and second-degree murder have now been added.
Chance
So much in this case seems to have come down to chance. With no evidence Landon knew Sylla, it appears to have been chance that he was at Schrom Hills Park as she took her regular nightly walk. Ricardo Dennis of Greenbelt Police Department told the News Review of his dismay that the beloved teacher’s murder was likely a random event, in which she was walking at the wrong time, in the wrong place.
It was also chance that helped bring murder charges against Landon, who was already incarcerated, arrested by Greenbelt Police on unrelated charges. A witness happened to be working late that evening. A smoker, he went outside for a cigarette at the exact time he would see something being dumped by the pond.
The case also highlighted the importance of assistance from the community, something Greenbelt police had been calling for. One tip that was called in turned out to be unrelated to the Sylla case but helped solve another crime. “We’re thankful for the break in this case,” said Dennis, who believed more information would be forthcoming as the murder case continues, led now by Prince George’s County police.
Community Grieves
Sylla was a 17-year veteran educator. She joined Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) in 2006, when she taught for a year at Robert Goddard Montessori School before joining the Dora Kennedy school the following year. “She was passionate about teaching French and maintaining high standards for students. We will miss her caring personality, beautiful smile and helpful spirit,” said Principal Spence.
In Greenbelt’s Labor Day Parade on Monday the Prince George’s County Educators’ Association handed out black and red ribbons in awareness of murder victims and drove a car with a sign saying, “In Memory of Mme. Mariame Toure Sylla.”
“We are devastated that she was taken from us in such a heinous way,” said the school’s PTA. “We stand with her family – both blood-related and her family of educators and friends. As we process what this means for us all, let us continue to pray for one another, to show kindness and respect to one another and to support those in their suffering.”
As students at the Greenbelt K-8 school return after the long Labor Day weekend, the school will have a support team of psychologists and school counselors ready to assist students and staff in dealing with the news and working through their grief. “We anticipate no less than 20-30 professional school counselors, crisis personnel and division-level administrators” to be at the school on Tuesday, said a letter from Spence on Monday. The support personnel will be available for counseling and to cover classes as needed. An announcement from the school said counseling will be available as long as necessary.
The funeral prayer for Madame Sylla has been scheduled for Friday, September 8 at 1:45 p.m. at the Diyanet Center of America (Turkish Mosque) at 9610 Good Luck Road in Lanham. On Monday, Spence said he anticipated modifications to normal instruction at the school but didn’t yet have a definitive plan.
The school had requested permission from PGCPS to make Friday an asynchronous virtual day for staff and students so they would not need to be present in their classrooms or online during the services for Sylla. On Tuesday evening the PTA announced that the request for a virtual day had been denied. “Our community has spent the last month tirelessly searching for, praying for and bringing awareness to the disappearance of our beloved Mme. Sylla. The devastation felt by her colleagues when they were informed of her heinous murder is palpable. The heartbreak of her students who canvassed neighborhoods and distributed flyers in hopes of bringing her home is overwhelming,” said an announcement from the PTA. “We believe that one of the most benevolent acts the county could take to truly show solidarity with our staff and community would be to allow them this one day to honor their friend and mourn her loss.”