Police: Bloody Clothes Found in Grandson's Bedroom after Homicides

A typical call to check on elderly Pikesville residents turned grisly last month when police discovered the scene of a double homicide.

Vaughn Pepper, 87, lay on the first floor, dead from blunt-force trauma, according to the charging document released Thursday by the Baltmore County Police Department.

He had wounds on his head and a bloody barbell was beside him.

There were "several circular holes in the chest area, leaving open the possibility that he may have been shot or stabbed in addition to being hit with the dumbbell," the document states.

Marjorie Pepper, 85, his wife since 1947, was found on the basement floor, the document states.

She too appeared to have died from blunt-force trauma to her head, and a bloody barbell was next to her, as well.

It was Sept. 10 when police found the Peppers' bodies at their home at 800 Olmstead Road.

Evidence, including some found in the Sudbrook Park home that night, led police to suspect that the Peppers' live-in grandson, Matthew Long, 31, had commited the murders. He has been charged with two counts of first-degree homicide and is being held in the Baltimore County Detention Center .

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On Sept. 10, Police found a plastic bag of bloody clothes in Long's bedroom, the document states. That bag included including a pair of bloody Hanes socks and a bloody pair of shorts.

And underneath Long's bed were more barbells.

However, there were things police couldn't find.

Namely, Long was gone. And the Peppers' car was gone, as well.

Days later, police would find Long in Oklahoma after a suicide attempt. But so far, the knife police believe was used in the homicides still has not been found.

Investigators concluded that the Peppers' murders occurred "after the morning hours of Sept. 8," the document states.

The investigation also revealed that, at 3 p.m. Sept. 9, Long withdrew money from a bank near his home in Pikesville.

Video surveillance shows him withdrawing the money from his account at a Maryland Branch Bank and Trust near his home, the document states.

He was driving the Peppers' 2009 Mercury.

That's the same car that Weatherford, OK, police say they found with him on Sept. 11.

Weatherford police found Long unresponsive in a motel room after a worker said Long didn't check out on time after he paid for a two-night stay.

Long left a suicide note, that states "I'm so sorry for everything. Please forgive me," according to Capt. Doyals of the Weatherford Police Department.

Also on Sept. 11, back in Baltimore, the Peppers, who had lived in Sudbrook Park since 1965, underwent autopsies at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland.

"The results of their autopsy (sic) revealed their deaths were a homicide," the charging document states.

Their funerals were held Sept. 14 in Dorchester County.

After Long was found in Weatherford, he was hospitalized in an Oklahoma City hospital.

Once he recovered, the Oklahoma City Police Department homicide detectives arrested him on a Baltimore County warrant.

That warrant charged him with two counts of first-degree homicide, Capt. Dexter Nelson of the department said.

He was then transferred to the custody of the Oklahoma County Sheriff.

Long was extradited from Oklahoma County to Baltimore County on Wednesday and is being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center.

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