Investigators Continue Search for Missing William McQuain

Police have come up empty in their search for the body of a missing 11-year-old boy whose mother was slain last week.

"We are still working this investigation with the hope that William will be found alive,
Capt. Paul Starks, a Montgomery County police spokesman, told News4.

However, Starks said officers found "nothing significant" Sunday in their search of two parks a few miles from the home where 11-year-old William McQuain lived with his mother.  He said over the weekend that investigators received some leads indicating the child might be in a park.

The search Sunday involved 80 people, mounted police and canine units.  Although police were searching for a body Sunday, they have not given up hope that William will be found alive. 

Starks said investigators continue to develop leads in the case.

His mother, 51-year-old Jane McQuain, was beaten and stabbed to death inside her Germantown home. Her body was found Wednesday night. William was last seen about two weeks ago.

Police found the suspect in her homicide, estranged husband Curtis Lopez, in Charlotte, N.C.  A woman named Pleshette Caldwell was driving McQuain's black Honda CRV in Charlotte when she got into a minor accident on Oct. 12. She told invstigators it was her boyfriend's mother's car and that woman's name was Jane, according to police documents.

The investigation into the accident led law enforcement to a nearby Econo Lodge where Lopez was staying.

Caldwell, who had been living with Lopez at the Econo Lodge, told police he had left Charlotte mid-September by train, saying he was visiting relatives.

According to court documents, Caldwell said that Lopez returned to Charlotte driving Jane McQuain's black CRV at the beginning of October.  Inside the vehicle, Caldwell said, was a large-screen TV and an X-Box video game system.

Police did not find those items, but did discover two cell phones and 18 copies of marriage licenses inside the Honda. At the hotel, they found a box cutter, a credit card belonging to McQuain, nine $100 bills and two soda cans that could be swabbed for DNA.

News4's Melissa Mollet spoke with a woman that Lopez had been staying with for a year in the Charlotte area.   According to the roommate, Lopez mostly kept to himself and had been unemployed for long periods.

In court in North Carolina, Lopez waived his right to an extradition hearing, which means he will be transported back to Montgomery County for  trial.  A timetable for his arrival in Maryland was not immediately available.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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