Two women wanted in connection with the homicide of 67-year-old Hilde Henderson have been arrested in Ohio.
Vanessa Wahanganisa Tjongarero-Henderson, 29, of Clarksburg and Samantha Raebel, 36, of Phoenix, AZ, were arrested on Wednesday by the Genoa, Ohio Police Department after a resident recognized them from media coverage and a Montgomery County Department of Police news release. A nationwide search was launched for the suspects, with media coverage extending throughout Ohio, Nashville and Phoenix. Detectives received multiple tips from several states before the two women were ultimately located in Genoa, Ohio.
On Monday, May 26, 2026, MCPD 3rd District officers responded to the Charter House in the 1300 block of Fenwick Lane for a welfare check and found Hilde Henderson inside her apartment. She was pronounced dead on scene.
The elder Henderson was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, where an autopsy determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma and the manner of death was homicide.
Detectives believe that Henderson was killed on Friday, May 22. Based on items of evidentiary value recovered during the investigation, Major Crimes Division detectives applied for and obtained arrest warrants for Tjongarero-Henderson and Raebel on May 27, charging both women with first-degree murder.
Tjongarero-Henderson and Raebel are currently being held at the Ottawa County Detention Center awaiting extradition to Maryland.
Vanessa Wahanganisa Tjongarero-Henderson
Samantha RaebelÂ
