Overview

• Hernandez‑Mendez, 35, faces first- and second-degree murder charges in the death of 19-year-old Da’cara Thompson of Prince George’s County.
• Thompson left her Lanham home late on Aug. 22 to get gas and texted her father shortly before midnight, after which she was not heard from again.
• Police say surveillance shows Thompson at a Hyattsville nightclub entering a GMC Yukon Denali tied to Hernandez‑Mendez, then going to a Bowie residence where investigators allege the killing occurred.
• Charging documents allege her body was thrown from the U.S. 50 bridge into the South River; a body later found off Route 50 was identified by family, with police noting skull and facial fractures.
• Records note Hernandez‑Mendez worked for a Baltimore-area landscaping company, had a DUI arrest by U.S. Park Police five months earlier, and was reported by authorities as living in the U.S. without legal status.