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Hagerstown Man Confessed to Strangling Stepdaughter

Nbcwashington · · 338 words · By • At
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What to know about Hagerstown Man Confessed to Strangling Stepdaughter

A man has confessed to strangling his 17-year-old stepdaughter and concealing her naked body, Hagerstown police said in court documents released Friday.

Claims checked 14
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center83%
Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

A man has confessed to strangling his 17-year-old stepdaughter and concealing her naked body, Hagerstown police said in court documents released Friday.

Why it matters

Ernie Benjamin Chase, 35, was being held without bail on charges including first-degree murder in the death of Melissa Skye Collins.

Common ground

Police say Collins' mother Kristel Chase told them Wednesday afternoon that her daughter was missing.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/hagerstown-man-accused-of-killing-teena…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 14 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4
schedule Pending 4
info Single Source 4
cancel Disputed 1
help Insufficient Evidence 1
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Claim 1: “Police say Collins' mother Kristel Chase told them Wednesday afternoon that her daughter was missing.”
CORROBORATED
Two separate web search results confirm that the mother, Kristel Chase, reported her daughter missing on Wednesday afternoon.
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web search NEUTRAL — Police say Collins' mother Kristel Chase told them Wednesday afternoon that her daughter was missing.Police say Chase told them that after their first visit, he carried the girl's body upstairs to the…
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/hagerstown-man-accu…
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web search NEUTRAL — Collins was reported missing by her mother. Police found her body later that day under a pile of clothes in a bedroom of their Hagerstown home. An autopsy showed she died of strangulation and blunt fo…
https://dreamindemon.com/community/threads/melissa-skye-coll…
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web search NEUTRAL — See below for timeline details.This is most of the police bodycam footage that Chris Watts appears in (and some additional footage) the day Shannann, Bella a...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0qZZc2nNzM
schedule
Claim 2: “Chase was convicted of second-degree assault in Dorchester County in 1999 and 2008, and sentenced to three years in prison in each case”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
cancel
Claim 3: “Police say they then obtained a search warrant and found Collins' body in the parents' bedroom beneath a pile of clothes.”
DISPUTED
There is a contradiction regarding the location of the body. One source says the body was found 'concealed within the house' and the biological father claims it was in the basement, while the claim states it was in the parents' bedroom under a pile of clothes.
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web search NEUTRAL — After obtaining a search warrant several hours later, police discovered Melissa's body 'concealed within the house,' according to police. Her biological father, Lynn Hassinger, told Daily Mail Online …
https://dreamindemon.com/community/threads/melissa-skye-coll…
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web search NEUTRAL — Police said they found the body of 39-year-old Xavier Reynolds under a pile of mulch Monday night outside a home on Brocton Court. Investigators said Reynolds died from blunt force trauma to the head.
https://cwcolumbus.com/news/local/911-call-leads-police-xavi…
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web search NEUTRAL — TRAPPED UNDER HOUSE Cops Find 3 Missing Kids Trapped Under Man's House Pinned Behind A Boulder (Body Cam Footage). 194,370. Caught On Body Cam: Handcuffed Man Brutally Attacks Female Cop!
https://worldstarhiphop.com/videos/wshhtKO7f2kW6SD279jU/horr…
schedule
Claim 4: “Chase's preliminary hearing is set for June 18.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 5: “Ernie Chase then said he had hit the girl in the face, knocking her down, after she talked back to him, police say.”
SINGLE SOURCE
While the general case is corroborated, the specific detail about hitting her in the face and knocking her down is not explicitly repeated across multiple independent sources in the provided evidence.
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web search NEUTRAL — Quora is a place to gain and share knowledge. It's a platform to ask questions and connect with people who contribute unique insights and quality answers. This empowers people to learn from each other…
https://www.quora.com/
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web search NEUTRAL — Melissa Skye Collins was found dead in the basement of her home in Hagerstown, Maryland. Told her biological father that she was afraid of stepfather Ernie Chase, 32. Chase was arrested and charged wi…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3091744/Stepfather-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Officers became suspicious of her step-father Ernie Chase when they interviewed him and he refused to let them inside. After obtaining a search warrant several hours later, police discovered Melissa's…
https://dreamindemon.com/community/threads/melissa-skye-coll…
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Claim 6: “officials at North Hagerstown High School said she wasn't' there”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm that Ernie Chase assumed she was at school, but officials at North Hagerstown High School stated she was not there.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Matthew J. Schindler (born November 22, 1983) is an American politician who is a member to the Maryland House of Delegates from District 2B. A member of the Democratic Party, he was previously a membe…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Schindler
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of mass shootings that took place in the United States in 2025. Mass shootings are incidents in which several people are injured or killed due to firearm-related violence; specifically …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Sheryl Lee (born April 22, 1967) is an American actress. After studying acting in college, Lee relocated to Seattle, Washington to work in theater, where she was cast by David Lynch as Laura Palmer an…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheryl_Lee
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 7: “Police say they searched the apartment and noticed that Ernie Chase was apprehensive about letting them go to the basement”
SINGLE SOURCE
Only one specific source mentions that Ernie Chase was apprehensive about police entering the basement during the initial search.
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web search NEUTRAL — Police say they searched the apartment and noticed that Ernie Chase was apprehensive about letting them go to the basement, but they found nothing suspicious.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/hagerstown-man-accu…
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web search NEUTRAL — Police initially, via a Facebook post, reported that the suspect was 16 years old. Ricks was being held Thursday at the Washington County Detention Center. What we know about the latest shooting in do…
https://www.aol.com/hagerstown-police-investigating-downtown…
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web search NEUTRAL — Orange County Police Car Chase - Benny Hill ThemedI bet you reposted this to Reddit for fake internet points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUYbu5DJA1U
schedule
Claim 8: “and of marijuana distribution in Washington County in 2010, resulting in a one-year sentence”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 9: “Ernie Benjamin Chase, 35, was being held without bail on charges including first-degree murder in the death of Melissa Skye Collins.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm Ernie Benjamin Chase, 35, was held without bail on charges including first-degree murder in the death of Melissa Skye Collins.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The following is a list of American films released in 2024. The year featured a diverse array of cinematic productions, ranging from major studio blockbusters to independent and streaming platform rel…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_2024
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of television films produced for the cable networks Hallmark Channel (HC) and Hallmark Mystery (HMM). Such films are currently called Hallmark Channel Original Movies and Hallmark Myste…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hallmark_Channel_Origi…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of former child actors and teen actors from the United States. These notable actors were age seventeen or younger at the time they started acting, but are currently eighteen or older, o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_American_child_…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 10: “A man has confessed to strangling his 17-year-old stepdaughter and concealing her naked body, Hagerstown police said in court documents released Friday.”
CORROBORATED
Two independent web search results explicitly state that a man confessed to strangling his 17-year-old stepdaughter and concealing her naked body, citing Hagerstown police court documents.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (or simply Follow That Bird) is a 1985 American family musical comedy film directed by Ken Kwapis, and written by Tony Geiss and Judy Freudberg. Based on the c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street_Presents:_Follow…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase is an ABC-Network miniseries based on When Rabbit Howls, the autobiography of Truddi Chase, a woman who was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder who h…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_Within:_The_Lives_of_Tr…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger Sr. ( ROTH-liss-BUR-gur; born March 2, 1982), nicknamed "Big Ben", is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Roethlisberger
+ 3 more evidence sources
help
Claim 11: “He told investigators he then choked her with his hands to keep her from screaming, and said he dragged her down to the basement and strangled her with a cord”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided for this claim in the search results.
schedule
Claim 12: “He was convicted of marijuana possession in Washington County in 2007 with no jail time”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 13: “Police say Chase told them that after their first visit, he carried the girl's body upstairs to the bedroom, removed her shorts and shirt and concealed the body with clothing.”
SINGLE SOURCE
This specific detail about moving the body to the bedroom and removing clothing after the first police visit is mentioned in only one source.
info
Claim 14: “police returned to the apartment and noticed changes in the basement, including apparent blood stains on the floor, one wall and a clear plastic bag.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists only of dictionary definitions for the word 'during' and does not contain any factual information regarding the police visit or blood stains.
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web search NEUTRAL — May 15, 2026 · The meaning of DURING is throughout the duration of. How to use during in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/during
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web search NEUTRAL — DURING definition: 1. from the beginning to the end of a particular period: 2. at some time between the beginning and…. Learn more.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/during
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web search NEUTRAL — During means throughout the entire time or at a certain point in time when something was happening. During is a preposition, which is a type of word used before a noun or pronoun to relate it to anoth…
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/during
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.