INCIDENT:              Fugitive Warrant and Search & Seizure Warrant

DATE & TIME:                   March 23rd @ 1300 Hours

LOCATION:            Warwick Road, Chester Harbor, Chestertown, MD (QA COUNTY)

ARREST:                  Christopher Charles Edler (30) of Chestertown, MD

                              Mara Lynn Smith (19) of Chestertown, MD

CHARGES:             Fugitive Warrant from Delaware (Burglary)

NARRATIVE: Sheriff Gary Hofmann is reporting that on March 23, Patrol Deputies along with Detectives from the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Unit working with detectives from New Castle County Police located and arrested Christopher Edler and Mara Smith on a fugitive warrants out of New Castle County Delaware. The two were charged for a residential burglary that took place in Huntington Drive in Wilmington Delaware during the early AM hours of March 22nd.. New Castle County Police Detectives identified the two as suspect’s after using a stolen credit card at a nearby 7-11 shortly after the burglary occurred. Reviewing security video, they were able to positively identify both subjects and as a result arrest warrants were issued.

                    Sheriff Hofmann reports that New Castle County Police contacted the Queen Anne’s County Office of the Sheriff after they located an old address used by one of the subjects which was in the Chester Harbor development in Queen Anne’s near Chestertown. When the owner of the residence answered the door, she stated she was renting a bedroom to the two suspects. After  Edler and Smith were arrested by deputies on the arrest warrants issued in Delaware, the residence was secured.  A joint investigation with the Queen Anne’s Sheriff’s Office and New Castle resulted in a search warrant being issued and executed on the residence and a vehicle later that afternoon. Detectives from both agencies searched the residence seizing items related to the burglary.

                              According to Sheriff Hofmann, Smith and Edler were taken before a District Court Commissioner after processing and ordered held without bond at the Queen Anne’s County Detention Center pending extradition to New Castle County Delaware.  Additional charges are pending for both suspects in Queen Anne’s County as a result of suspected CDS items seized during the search of the residence. 

INVESTIGATING DEPUTY:  Detective Jeremy Gardner

ASSISTING:                       D/Sgt. Bruce Layton, D/Cpl. Steve Stouffer, Dfc. George Sewell, Lt. Dwayne Embert, Detectives from New Castle County Police

CASE NUMBER:                          12-08436