iStock(WASHINGTON D.C.) — A 27-year-old woman was walking a dog when she was stabbed to death — apparently at random — in Washington, D.C., according to police.
A man approached Margery Magill, who was working as a dog walker, on a D.C. street Tuesday night and stabbed her multiple times before fleeing the scene on foot, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
Neighbors heard Magill cry out for help and came to her aid, but the young woman was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Her suspected killer, 24-year-old D.C. resident Eliyas Aregahegne, was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder while armed.
“A motive is not entirely clear,” D.C. police Chief Peter Newsham said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We do not have any information to suggest that it was a robbery or that it was an attempted sexual assault.”
“We believe that there was only one person involved in this stabbing and we have not recovered any information to suggest that Margery knew or had any association with that suspect,” Newsham added.
Video cameras on the block were “instrumental” in leading to the arrest, the chief said.
Meanwhile, Magill’s family and friends are in mourning.
Magill “was a young professional who just received her master’s degree in international relations and who by all accounts was beloved by her family and friends,” the chief said. “I want to extend a heartfelt condolence to the family and friends of Margery who unnecessarily lost her on the streets of the District of Columbia.”
Magill received her master’s degree from the University of Westminster in London in 2019 and then moved to D.C., where she worked at the Washington Center, helping graduate students find jobs and internships, The Washington Post reported.
Aregahegne is due to make his first court appearance on Thursday.
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