Arizona woman held without bond in connection to May death of Silver Spring woman

Hearing for codefendant, victim’s daughter scheduled for Thursday

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July 9, 2026 10:31 a.m.

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An Arizona woman charged with first degree murder in connection with the May death of a Silver Spring woman will continue to be held without bond after a hearing Wednesday in which the Montgomery County public defender’s office said they didn’t have enough information on the case or her codefendant to discuss bond options. 

Samantha Raebel, 36, of Phoenix and her girlfriend, Vanessa Tjongarero-Henderson, are charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Tjongarero-Henderson’s mother, 67-year-old Hilde Henderson. The public defender representing Raebel said Wednesday in Montgomery County District Court that waiving the bond hearing was not an admission of guilt. Tjongarero-Henderson, 29, of Clarksburg, is scheduled to have her bond hearing Thursday at 1 p.m. 

Shortly after 11 a.m. on May 26, officers responded to the Charter House, an “an affordable senior living community” according to its website, at 1316 Fenwick Lane in Silver Spring, for a welfare check, charging documents said. According to the documents, officers found Henderson “obviously deceased” in her bedroom and a significant amount of blood in the apartment. Blood was in a concentrated area “consistent with an impact injury,” according to the documents. 

Henderson had significant trauma to her head and was transported to The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore. The office conducted an autopsy and ruled Henderson’s death a homicide and the manner as blunt force trauma. 

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According to charging documents, police obtained surveillance footage that depicted Henderson allowing Raebel and Tjongarero-Henderson into her home on May 22 at roughly 9 p.m.  

According to the documents, Tjongarero-Henderson can be seen on surveillance footage leaving and returning to the apartment several times, carrying multiple items including a white bedsheet to the trash room between 2 and 3 a.m. The documents said some of the items appeared to have blood on them.  

Tjongarero-Henderson and Raebel were seen, according to charging documents, on surveillance footage leaving the apartment on May 23 at roughly 5 p.m.  

According to the charging documents, there was a “documented history of domestic-related incidents” involving the two women and the victim, including one incident in which police believed Raebel assaulted Henderson.  

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Police said in the documents that “various items of evidentiary value were collected” from the apartment including clothes the women appeared to wear, which had blood on it. 

The discovery of Henderson led to a weeklong search for the two women. According to a June statement from police, media outlets in Phoenix, Ohio and Nashville, Tennessee reported on the case. The media coverage yielded “multiple tips from several states,” according to Montgomery County police. 

Someone who recognized the pair from media coverage contacted the Genoa, Ohio, police department, according to a June 11 statement from police. The pair were held in the Ottawa County Detention Center in Ohio before they were extradited to Maryland.  

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine