Missing Pa. Woman Found Strangled To Death On Side Of Baltimore County Road

BALTIMORE (WJZ)—Investigators say a missing woman from the Pennsylvania area has been found strangled to death in a wooded area in Baltimore County.

On Sunday afternoon, the York Area Regional Township Police responded to a home in the 200 block of Cambridge Road, in Red Lion, Pennsylvania for a report of a missing woman.

Police learned that 30-year-old Rebekah Jea Strausbaugh was last seen on June 24, 2016 and was planning a weekend trip to the Baltimore area, but never returned home.

After speaking to the victim's boyfriend, 48-year-old Michael Anthony Morant, police learned that on June 25, Morant went to Baltimore City to look for Strausbaugh.

According to authorities, Morant later located her at a Shake Shack on Pratt Street. The couple apparently got into a car together where an argument later ensued while traveling on I-83.

Police say Morant pulled over in the area around Ensor Mill Road and Belfast Road in Sparks, Maryland where the argument turned physical and left Strausbaugh unresponsive.

"When Strausbaugh did not respond to Morant, he drug her body into the woods and covered her with a blanket," police said in a news release.

Strausbaugh's body was found in the woods in the 15500 block of Ensor Mill Road.

An autopsy report reveled that Strausbaugh was strangled to death.

Michael Anthony Morant has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center.

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