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Boyfriend Confesses To Strangling, Then Raping Barely Alive Girlfriend In Walmart Parking Lot
Edgar Manning IV admitted he and girlfriend Megan Burdeaux had been arguing about her attending a concert without him when he killed her.
Last year, Edgar Manning IV was found by police passed out behind the wheel of his van with a rope tied around his neck and the body of his 21-year-old girlfriend, Megan Burdeaux, in the back.
On Monday, September 16, Manning, 27, of Pasadena, Maryland, pleaded guilty to raping and murdering her, according to a statement released by Anne Arundel County.
After being found with Burdeaux's dead body, Manning had admitted to police he strangled his girlfriend, and a subsequent autopsy determined she had been sexually assaulted before she died.
As part of the terms of his plea agreement, Manning was found guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree rape, and prosecutors will drop any subsequent remaining charges.
They will also seek to get the judge to suspend the second-degree rape sentence and pull back from their original intent to seek a life sentence without parole, reports The Annapolis Capital Gazette.
Burdeaux had met up with Manning on the evening of Sept. 24, 2018, to enjoy a crab dinner, but the couple soon started quarreling in a Walmart parking lot. Manning was upset she had gone to a concert with friends instead of him, and during the argument Manning strangled the woman, according to the local outlet.
While she was still barely alive in the back of his van, Manning sexually assaulted her. He then sped out of the parking lot and headed to his ex-wife’s house to snooze on her couch, the publication reported.
The following day, prosecutors say, a rested-up Manning called his stepfather to confess “that he had killed his girlfriend.” His stepfather then contacted law enforcement.
By this time Burdeaux’s mother, Dawn Burdeaux, had already reported her daughter missing.
Multiple law enforcement agencies started searching for Manning, putting a trace on his cellphone.
At around 3 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2018, Manning’s van was located in Gambrills, Maryland parked at a dead-end, with Manning sleeping behind the wheel with a rope tied around his neck and Burdeaux's body in the back, according to The Capital Gazette.
Manning is scheduled to be sentenced on December 18, 2019.
After Manning’s plea in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court on Monday, the victim's mother, Dawn, stood outside to express relief that Manning confessed.
“We’re glad that he’s not putting the family through a trial,” the mother told reporters. “She’s missed every day.”
