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Jury Selection Underway In Case For Man Accused Of Killing Howard County Teacher

ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJZ) -- Jury selection is underway in the trial of Tyler Tessier, a man charged in the killing of his pregnant girlfriend last September.

Laura Wallen, 31, was reported missing after the Howard County Public School teacher didn't show up for her first day of school following the Labor Day holiday in 2017.

Her body was later found in a Montgomery County field.

Tessier, 33, is accused of killing Wallen, who was his girlfriend at the time. His 10-day trial started Tuesday morning.

Judge Unlikely To Allow Jurors To See Pregnant, Howard Co. Teacher's Grave

It's almost a year to the day when Wallen was murdered -- shot in the back of the head and buried on farmland in Damascus.

Wallen, who lived in Olney,  went missing the weekend of Sept. 2, 2017. Tessier was the last person to see her alive. She had texted a friend to show her where Tessier had taken her to show her where he was allegedly planning on building them a home. Instead, he's charged with killing her there.

Wallen was a social studies teacher at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia. She didn't show up for her first day of classes after weeks of preparing, signaling co-workers and friends to her missing.

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