Man charged with murder after kayaker in Ohio finds tote with body inside, police say

A suspect in the case of a man whose body was found in an Ohio lake has been formally charged with murder.

On June 28 around 8:30 a.m., a kayaker on the eastern shore of Alum Creek Lake in Delaware County saw a human leg sticking out of a plastic tote in the water, Columbus’ WCMH-TV reported.

After investigators recovered the tote, they found the body of Timothy Robert Marcum, 37, who they identified using fingerprints.

“It’s just too early to determine how long that tote has been in the water and I wouldn’t even want to speculate on that, too,” Delaware County Sheriff Russell Martin said at the time, according to the station. “It’ll take a while to put those puzzle pieces together, but hopefully…we’ll be able to answer some of those obvious questions.”

The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office later said Marcum had been shot to death.

On July 3, Timothy P. Baldrick was arrested and charged with tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.

Four days later, detectives served Baldrick with an arrest warrant inside the Delaware County Jail and, in addition to the original accusations against him, charged him in connection to Marcum’s death.

“Detectives uncovered additional evidence this week, leading to today’s murder charge,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.