LAUREL, Md. — After 11 years of hurt, anger and grief, a family in Laurel, Maryland, is getting some closure.
On Thursday, police announced that Michael Duvall, 58, of D.C., had been indicted on a common-law murder charge in connection to the 2005 killing of 20-year-old Brian Moses.
Moses’ mother, Shirley Bell, said the news was overwhelming.
“It’s not that I was going to ever give up, but it just seems like this year was the year I could feel it coming,” Bell said with a sigh.
On Sept. 15, 2005, Moses was found semiconscious in a car that had been involved in a single-vehicle wreck on West Street near Laurel City Hall. Police said he had been stabbed in the chest.
He died weeks after police discovered him.
Bell said she promised her son on this deathbed that she’d find justice. Laurel Police Chief Richard McLaughlin delivered news of the arrest to Bell in person.
“We worked real hard for it,” Bell said. “I’m just glad that the Laurel police stuck with me.”
Moses’ family attended a news conference at announcing Duvall’s indictment, where McLaughlin offered words of hope to all crime victims.
“This case should act as a reminder to anybody that is a victim, a survivor, of this type of crime: These are not forgotten,” McLaughlin said. “There is no such thing as an inactive murder investigation. They are being worked — just not in the limelight. And, hopefully given time, all these cold cases will get closed.”
Duvall was arrested at a D.C. halfway house on Wednesday. In addition to murder charges tied to the death of Moses, Duvall faces first-degree assault charges in the District. Duvall already had served 10 years for a first-degree assault in D.C. that happened three months after Moses died.
Bell said Duvall was identified as a suspect back in 2005.
Citing efforts by the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s office to build a criminal case, police on Thursday declined to provide details about a possible motive or how Duvall and Moses knew each other.
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