Court Documents Reveal Details in Montgomery County Mother and Son Slaying

Child Killed With Baseball Bat

The mother was stabbed in her sleep. The son, killed with a bat.

Charging documents against Curtis Lopez, accused of killing Jane McQuain and her son, 11-year-old William McQuain, revealed chilling details of their murders.

Jane McQuain was asleep Sept. 30 when she was killed, according to investigators. The 51-year-old mother was stabbed through a blanket, and then bludgeoned over the head with a 30-pound weight.

The knife was found in the living room of her Germantown condo, and the weight was discovered in her son's bedroom.

That evening, William, 11, had been sleeping over at a friend's house. The next day, video cameras recorded the young McQuain together with Curtis Lopez, 45, at a Clarksburg, Md., self-storage business.

Police said Lopez entered a unit rented by Jane McQuain and retrieved a baseball bat. The two then drove to a Liberty gas station where Lopez filled up Jane McQuain's black Honda CRV. Next, according to charging documents, Lopez led the boy into a wooded area nearby, and hit him in the head with the bat. The child died, and the murder weapon was left at the scene.

Police said that on the night of the murder, Lopez had taken a cell phone photo of Jane McQuain's vehicle, and sent it to his girlfriend in Charlotte.  According to investigators, the accused murderer wrote in a text message that this vehicle would be his girlfriend's new car.

According to the charging documents, on Saturday morning, the day William McQuain died, a member of the boy's football team called the McQuains' condo, asking if the boy would be at the day's game.  A male voice answered, telling the caller, "I'm not playing today."

Curtis Lopez arrived back in Maryland on Wednesday, after being held in Charlotte for three weeks. 

He was found in North Carolina after his girlfriend there, Pleshette Caldwell, got into an accident driving McQuain's car. Caldwell led police to a nearby Econo Lodge where Lopez had been holed up.

Lopez was taken into custody Oct. 13, and is charged with first-degree murder for the homicide of Jane McQuain.

The body of William McQuain was located Oct. 18.

Rockville District Court held a bond review hearing Thursday, and Lopez continues to be held without bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 2.

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