Actress' Alleged Killer Tells Cops She Killed Herself

DC yoga instructor Tricia McCauley was "violently sexually assaulted" before she was beaten and strangled, a prosecutor says, per NBC Washington. The man accused of her murder tells a very different story. McCauley—a stand-in in the film Step Up—told friends she was on her way to a Christmas party at 4:30pm Sunday but then disappeared, reports ABC News. It isn't clear what happened next, though McCauley's brother says a dish she made for the party was left on her counter, per WJLA. Her 2013 Toyota Scion iQ was found early Tuesday outside a CVS. Adrian Duane Johnson was inside the store with the keys and told police he'd recently met McCauley and the pair had sex on a curb. Johnson said McCauley then told him he could have all of her belongings and hanged herself in her car as he stood outside, police say.

Johnson—who couldn't say what McCauley used to hang herself, per ABC7—then admitted to driving around in her car, using her credit cards, and picking up a prostitute while McCauley's body was concealed on the floor of the back seat, her legs restrained by a seat belt, according to police documents. When officers asked why he'd kept McCauley's body, he said he thought she might have been asleep, police say. At one point, he also asked, "If someone is suicidal and gives you all their stuff, is that illegal?" according to police documents. WUSA9 reports Johnson spent three days in jail due to a theft charge before he was released on Dec. 20. He was to be fitted with a GPS monitoring device the next day, but he never arrived at the scheduled appointment. A warrant was never issued. He's due in court for the murder charge on Jan. 13. (More murder stories.)