A D.C. man was found guilty of murder Monday in the 2020 killing of his girlfriend, whose body has never been found.
Darnell Sterling, 57, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of 34-year-old Olga Ooro.
Ooro was last seen the night of July 16, 2020, walking away from her home in the 300 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW. She had just returned home from dinner with her son and Sterling, authorities said.
Police learned Ooro was missing after her 7-year-old son was found wandering the halls of their apartment building alone two days later.
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Sterling was arrested on July 23, 2020, after police said they saw him on surveillance video in Ooro’s apartment building struggling to pull a cart that had a large object consistent with the size of a person wrapped and covered with a blanket, according to court documents.
Sterling told investigators he was in Ocean City at the time Ooro’s missing apartment building key fob was used, but police said tag readers showed his car in D.C., according to court documents.
The documents also state that a cadaver dog alerted inside Ooro’s apartment and inside Sterling’s car.
The jury deliberated for less than a day before reaching the guilty verdict Monday.
Ooro's body has not been found, and her family has pleaded for the public's help to find her remains.
"She was a lovely child. She never missed any of my birthdays, Father’s Day. She danced with me, she challenged me, she loved me. She was just an incredible child and a loving daughter," Ooro's father, Otieno Ooro, said Tuesday.
Her father carries with him a vial of cologne, which Olga Ooro gave him before her death
"She gave me this, the last gift she gave me on Father’s Day, and every morning I wake up and spray it on myself to remember her," Otieno Ooro said.
Sterling's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2023.
