When Michelle Dawn Wolford’s eyes fixed on the photo of William Brown, who was arrested last Friday in connection with two slayings and a violent rape, she burst into tears.

 “Oh my God! That’s him, that’s him,” she said.

Standing on the corner of one of the city’s most notorious prostitution thoroughfares, Wolford, 38, identified Brown to The Examiner Thursday as the man who brutally beat and choked her, then left her for dead.

DNA testing tied Brown to three other violent crimes. A female prostitute and a teenager were killed.

This story continues below
Advertisement

A third woman was raped and brutally beaten and her ears severed, Baltimore police said.

As tears poured down her cheeks, Wolford showed the bruises on her neck, where her assailant choked her until she was unconscious.

“He probably thought I was dead,” she said. “That’s probably why he left.”

Wolford said the man she identified as Brown picked her up on Washington Boulevard near Wilkens Avenue around 10 o’clock on the night of July 23.

He drove her a few blocks to an abandoned lot to have sex, Wolford said. Once they left the car, she immediately sensed something was wrong.

“He was acting strange,” she said. “He told me to pull down my pants, and I wouldn’t. Then he hit me in the head and then in the chest. I started to yell, and he told me to shut the ---- up. [That’s when] he started to strangle me, and I passed out.”

Now Wolford says she lives in fear.

“I’m scared, I’m just so scared,” she said. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t sleep at night.”

Wolford said an addiction to heroin keeps her on the streets.

She called police Thursday and was expected to be interviewed late last night.

Wolford’s mother, Helen Howard said, she is worried about her daughter.

“I wish some days I could just lock her in the house,” Howard said. “I’m constantly worried. I don’t know what to do.” 

sjanis@baltimoraeexaminer.com