An autopsy is scheduled today on the body of a Marion woman who was found murdered Wednesday along a Cedar River nature trail in Linn County. Forty-one-year-old Mary McBride had been missing about two weeks. A suspect, 32-year-old Christopher Murray of Cedar Rapids, was arrested Wednesday and is to make a court appearance this morning on a first-degree murder charge.
Marion Police Chief Harry Daugherty couldn’t comment on how McBride was killed. Chief Daugherty says, "We’re still investigating that. We’re not going to comment on anything to do with how she was murdered or the state of the body being found."
The victim was last seen on June 18th. A tip led police to the body and the suspect. Three years ago, a woman jogger was attacked and nearly killed on the same trail, not far away. A bicyclist, Wendy Arneal, says it was chilling to be blocked by police tape during her Fourth of July bike ride.
Arneal says, "It brought back the memory of that case a few years ago and kind of reminded me that you take things for granted, that you are safe." In this murder case, police have not said what the relationship was between the victim and the suspect.