Hagerstown Man Confessed to Strangling Stepdaughter

A man has confessed to strangling his 17-year-old stepdaughter and concealing her naked body, Hagerstown police said in court documents released Friday.

Ernie Benjamin Chase, 35, was being held without bail on charges including first-degree murder in the death of Melissa Skye Collins.

Police say Collins' mother Kristel Chase told them Wednesday afternoon that her daughter was missing. Ernie Chase initially told police he assumed Collins had gone to school but officials at North Hagerstown High School said she wasn't' there, according to court records.

Police say they searched the apartment and noticed that Ernie Chase was apprehensive about letting them go to the basement, but they found nothing suspicious.

After a second interview with the mother, police returned to the apartment and noticed changes in the basement, including apparent blood stains on the floor, one wall and a clear plastic bag. Police say they then obtained a search warrant and found Collins' body in the parents' bedroom beneath a pile of clothes.

Ernie Chase then said he had hit the girl in the face, knocking her down, after she talked back to him, police say. He told investigators he then choked her with his hands to keep her from screaming, and said he dragged her down to the basement and strangled her with a cord, according to court records.

Police say Chase told them that after their first visit, he carried the girl's body upstairs to the bedroom, removed her shorts and shirt and concealed the body with clothing.

Chase's preliminary hearing is set for June 18. No defense attorney is listed in court records.

Chase was convicted of second-degree assault in Dorchester County in 1999 and 2008, and sentenced to three years in prison in each case, according to online court records. He was convicted of marijuana possession in Washington County in 2007 with no jail time, and of marijuana distribution in Washington County in 2010, resulting in a one-year sentence, according to the online information.