Over two months after a woman’s burned body was found in a Hollywood alley, police have arrested a suspect but have not yet identified the woman.
Marquis Denmark, 41, is now charged with abuse of a dead body, failure to report a death and possession of MDMA (ecstasy), according to a probable cause affidavit. Police say he set the woman’s dead body on fire but have not said how they connected Denmark to the woman or whether they are investigating her death as a murder.
The woman remains unidentified, referred to only as Jane Doe in the arrest warrant. Officers had found her burned body shortly after midnight on Aug. 12 after responding to a call about a fire in an alley in the 500 block of North 21st Avenue. A suspect had been identified in August, according to a news release from 10 days after the body was found.
Then, on Oct. 8, a judge signed an arrest warrant for Denmark. On Wednesday, a Hallandale Police officer said he encountered Denmark in a park while it was closed, according to a probable cause affidavit, in violation of a city ordinance.
The officer approached Denmark to inform him of the ordinance, the affidavit states, and at that point checked his background and found that he had two active felony warrants in the burned body case.
Officers arrested Denmark and found a baggie of MDMA in his pocket. He is being held in Broward Main Jail on $26,000 bond.