Law enforcement on Monday announced an arrest in the “heinous” murder that left a suburban Chicago native dead and her children hiding for hours before calling for help.
According to police, Crimea Malita Baker, 33, a Chicago-area native living in New Market, Maryland, was found shot to death in late August inside a home in Frederick County, Maryland. Sean Antoine Lange, 34, of Virginia, was also found dead.
Police believe the pair were living together, along with Baker’s four children, one of whom Lange was the father of.
Baker’s ex-husband, David Phillip Turner, 33, of Miami, Florida, was arrested Saturday evening on a beach in Fort Lauderdale, reported WBAL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Baltimore.
An investigation indicated Baker and Lange were shot around overnight on Aug. 25 with at least 42 shots fired “at or into both individuals,” according to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office.
“This was a heinous, targeted double murder – a crime of rage and anger,” Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said, adding that it’s the type of crime that “shocks the conscience.”
“Turner must have been so enraged for some reason, maybe we’ll find out in the future, maybe not,” the sheriff said Monday.
Jenkins said the four children inside the home were unharmed and hid inside for hours until they felt safe enough to come out and call for help. One of the children found the bodies after they emerged from hiding.
The children were all 13 years old or younger. Baker, who grew up in Mundelein, Illinois, recently gave birth to her youngest child earlier this year.
Authorities shared their condolences to the grieving families and the children who lost their parents.
“”This was a devastating loss to the family and to the community. Now, you’re going to have three kids grow up without their mother and several children grow up without a father,” Jenkins said. “Their lives will never be the same, but they’re with family and they’re safe.”
A fundraising page claiming to raise money to keep Baker’s children together said, in the initial weeks following the shooting, the children were “…doing as well as they can be given the circumstances.”
“Crimea had a beautiful spark in her. She touched everyone she met with her fun-loving personality and shaped her children’s lives with her can-do attitude,” Jennifer Duncan, who said Baker was a beloved friend, wrote on the page. “Crimea’s death, of course, has impacted their lives in unimaginable ways.”