On December 19, 1996, Joe Metheny, 41, who authorities say preyed on women with drug or alcohol problems, was charged with killing three women. Metheny was first arrested for the slaying of a 26-year-old woman whom authorities said he met at the Borderline Bar and Restaurant in Arbutus, a Baltimore suburb. The decomposed body of the woman, Kimberly Spicer, was found under a trailer less than 10 feet from Metheny's own at the Joseph Stein and Son pallet company.
Metheny was also charged in the killing of Toni Ingrassia, a 28-year-old woman whose body was found in 1994 near Interstate 95, a short distance from the company. She had been stabbed and strangled. The third charge concerns a decapitated body of an unidentified woman. Police are also looking for the remains of a fourth victim, a man, after Metheny allegedly confessed killing him.
Some of the bodies had been sexually mutilated, authorities said. Metheny, who is being held without bail, was acquitted in July in the ax slayings of two homeless men in August 1995. A Circuit Court jury concluded there was insufficient evidence to convict Metheny of killing the two men in a makeshift village called "Tent City" in south Baltimore.