On November 27, 1973, 11-year-old Penny L. Schroeder was murdered in Clinton, Maryland, her body found in a wooded area just a few blocks from her elementary school. She had been stabbed nine times, and bludgeoned to death. A number of eyewitnesses saw a young African American man walking with Schroeder shortly before her death. Based on profiles of mentally disturbed suspects living in the county, Prince George's County sheriff's deputies focused on Edward J. Holmes, a mentally disturbed 19-year-old man whose parents lived in Clinton but who was residing with his aunt at 279 54th Street SE in Marshall Heights. Holmes was arrested at about 10:30 PM on November 27, taken to Prince George's County, and interrogated for about four hours by Prince George's and D.C. police. Holmes made a taped and written confession in which he admitted to the Kendrick, Bradley, and Schroeder murders.