Cedric Marks, who has previously fought in the UFC, has been arrested under suspicion of killing two people, one of whom was his ex-girlfriend. He was re-captured on Sunday by police, after he initially evaded authorities, escaping from a prisoner transport van in Texas.
Marks was arrested in Michigan last month, after it was alleged that he broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend, Jenna Scott, in Temple, Texas. She reported that he broke in while her nine-year-old daughter was present, and took her phone to stop her from calling the police. This meant he was a lead suspect when Scott and a friend of hers, Michael Swearingin, disappeared on January 4 and were found buried in Clearview, Oklahoma, on January 15.
He reportedly escaped from a private prison transport van during a stop at a McDonald's in Conroe, about 40 miles north of Houston, according to police Lt. Dorcy McGinnis. He was being transferred to Bell County to face the break-in charge at the time, but murder warrants were issued on Sunday after his escape.
According to Conroe Police's Lt. Scott Spencer, he was taken back into custody after a nine-hour manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies.
Scott requested a protective order against her ex-boyfriend last July, before the break-in. She accused him of choking her until she was unconscious on two different occasions, according to KCEN. “Each time he allowed me to regain consciousness and then he choked me out again,” Scott said in an affidavit.
However, this request was denied.
In addition to this, police in Bloomington, Minnesota have said that the MMA fighter is a person of interest in another disappearance. He and April Pease were in a fierce custody dispute due to Pease' apparent drug problem. She eventually went to live in a women's shelter because she was scared of him, claiming that he had choked her unconscious on several occasions, according to a court custody investigator.
Pease went missing in March 2009, and Marks got custody of their son.
Her mother, Dottie Pease, told KCEN just last month that while she had always suspected that her daughter had overdosed, recent developments have led her to believe that Marks could have had something to do with it.
In addition to Marks' arrest, two other women were captured by the authorities in Michigan in related charges. Maya Maxwell is said to have tampered with evidence, and confessed that she drove Swearingin's vehicle to Austin to hide it from investigators. It was found abandoned in the city on January 6, and Maxwell is now being held in Bell County Jail on a $150,000 bond.
Ginebll McDonough, Marks' current wife and mother of two of his children, is jailed in Muskegon County, Michigan. She was charged with obstruction of justice, after being accused of letting both Marks and Maxwell stay in her home during this period.
