A man has been indicted in the death of a North Carolina artist who was found bound and stabbed to death inside a row house in northeast Washington earlier this year.
El Hadji Toure, 28, formerly of Laurel, Maryland, is facing multiple charges in the death of Corrina Mehiel, including first-degree murder while armed and first-degree sexual abuse while armed.
Prosecutors say Toure broke into Mehiel's basement apartment on March 20, 2017, bound her and sexually assaulted her. He then stabbed her and took her car and debit card, according to prosecutors.
Mehiel, 34, was found unconscious inside her apartment the next day. She was pronounced dead after midnight March 22, one day before her birthday.
Police have pictures of Toure using Mehiel’s ATM card at several locations around the area, court documents said. Her card was used seven times to withdrawal a total of $4,000 in the days before and after her death.
Surveillance video also shows Toure walking in Mehiel’s block the morning of her murder and driving away in her 2004 Toyota Prius, according to court documents.
He was arrested March 27 after someone reported seeing sitting in a Ford Taurus on the 1700 block of Hamlin Street NE.
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Mehiel was an artist and art teacher who was working at the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design. She was last seen at the school March 19. She talked with her father by phone that night, too, her stepmother said.
Mehiel, who originally was from Burnsville, North Carolina, was living in D.C. temporarily. She specialized in art that engaged communities and was working with the artist Mel Chin.
Toure will be arraigned Dec. 14. He faces a maximum of life in prison.
