Melvin Linkins was ordered released from D.C. jail Friday after Judge Herbert Dixon ruled there was not enough evidence to proceed in the case charging Linkins with the death of 37-year-old D.C. firefighter Marc Emilio Dancy.
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office said the case remains under investigation.
Dancy was found dead in the vestibule of an apartment building in the 3000 block of 7th Street Northeast on January 23, 2011, at around 8:00 a.m. An initial autopsy revealed the cause of death was blunt force trauma; the manner of death was ruled as undetermined. But further investigation found that Dancy suffered his injuries during an altercation with another individual.
On July 31, 2013, Dancy’s manner of death was determined to be a homicide. Two days later Linkins was arrested and held in suspicion of second-degree murder in Dancy’s death.
Metropolitan Police Detective Anthony Patterson testified at the preliminary hearing Friday that police believe an affair between Linkins’ wife and Dancy led to Dancy’s death.
According to charging documents, police recovered a text message conversation with a resident of the building where Dancy’s body was found. That resident told police that she was having a relationship with Dancy while married to Linkins. She said that though married, she and Linkins were estranged.
According to the charging documents, police believe Dancy texted the woman at 3:16 a.m., asking to come over. Someone responded, “yes.” When Dancy arrived he sent another text saying he was at the building. At 3:37 a.m. Dancy called the woman’s phone and left a voice message. No text messages or calls were made after that.
Documents say the woman told police she never sent or received any text messages from Dancy that morning and that she knew nothing about him coming to her apartment that morning.
Linkins was staying with her in order to visit his children, she said, and Linkins and one of the children argued about her son using her phone. The woman asked Linkins to hold her cell phone to prevent her son from using it again. The son told detectives that when he went to sleep that night, Linkins was the last person with the phone.
No future court dates were scheduled in the case, according to the case docket at DC Superior Court.
