Did University Park, Maryland’s Harold Landon III abduct Greenbelt’s Mariame Sylla?

Mariame Toure Sylla of Greenbelt, Prince George’s County, Maryland, United States has died. She was 60.

Born and raised in the Ivory Coast, Sylla joined the Dora Kennedy French Immersion School in Greenbelt as a third-grade teacher in 2006. She lived in a condominium community in Greenbelt with her son Mohamed Sylla, 37.

At around 8:00 p.m. on July 29, 2023, Mariame told Mohamed she was going for her usual walk in the Schrom Hills Park, which is across from their apartment. While she was out on a walk in the park, she was abducted allegedly by Harold Francis Landon III, 33, of University Park, Prince George’s County.

By 9:00 p.m., Mariame had not returned. Mohamed tried to reach her by phone but it went straight to voicemail so he went to the park to look for her.

Mariame was nowhere to be found. At around 11:00 p.m., Mohamed called her friend Dougo Nana Sidibe and they called 911 to report his mother missing.

In early August 2023, Mohamed was arrested on a list of traffic charges dating to June 2018 and a failure to appear in court warrant. He is being held without bond at the Howard County Jail in Jessup, Maryland and his arrest has nothing to do with her mother’s disappearance and murder.

On August 1, 2023, Landon was arrested and booked into the Department of Corrections on an assault charge not related to Mariame’s disappearance. On the same day, a concerned citizen contacted the Prince George’s County Police Department to report possible human remains found on Old Alexandria Ferry Road in Clinton, Prince George’s County where a dismembered body was discovered.

In the third week of August 2023, it was confirmed that the remains belonged to Mariame. Security video showed a pickup truck going to and from the area where her remains were found, which led investigators to identify Landon as a suspect.

On September 1, 2023, homicide detectives filed first-degree murder charges against Landon for Mariame’s murder. The two do not appear to have known each other, according to Prince George’s County Police Department chief Malik Aziz.