By Jaimie Winters
A 43-year-old man from Pasadena, Md., was arrested March 20 in connection with the death of his girlfriend 14 years ago, police said this week.
Stephen Michael Cooke Jr., of the 1000 block of Englishman Harbour, was charged with first-degree murder, police said. Police said Cooke hired someone to kill 24-year-old Heidi Bernadzikowski, who was found murdered in her Dundalk townhome in April 2000. She had been strangled and had her throat cut, police said.
“Our Homicide detectives deserve credit for never giving up on these cold cases,” Police Chief Jim Johnson said in a statement. “They never forget these victims and their families, and they tirelessly pursue leads over many years. This time, their work has paid off.”
Cooke was arrested in Anne Arundel County earlier this week and is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center, police said.
Police said they have long suspected that Cooke conspired to kill Bernadzikowski.
Two other co-conspirators, Alexander Charles Bennett, 34, of Greeley, Colo., and Grant A. Lewis, 35, of Denver, were also charged in the case.
Bennett was charged with first-degree murder in January 2012 after DNA tests linked him to the crime, police said, adding that he is currently awaiting trial in the Baltimore County Detention Center.
Lewis was arrested in Baltimore earlier this week and is being charged with conspiracy to commit murder and is also being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center, police said.
Police said they did not have enough evidence to arrest Cooke until Bennett identified him as the person behind the murder. Police believe that Cooke hired both conspirators to kill Bernadzikowski to collect a $700,000 insurance policy that he had purchased months earlier.
Police said Cooke entered into a murder-for-hire agreement with both conspirators after contacting them on the Internet. Under the agreement, police said Lewis remained in Colorado and told Bennett what to do. Bennett travelled to Maryland and committed the murder, police said.
Police said there are no other suspects in the case.