Man charged in Camden double homicide; 7 others sought

A Camden man was charged with murder today in the death of Michael Hawkins, who was beaten for hours - until most of the bones in his face were broken - and then shot and stabbed, officials said.

After Hawkins was dead, he was buried in the backyard of the home where he was killed.

"For Hawkins, it was a torturous death," said Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Dennis Welch, who was charged today, was among a group of people who bound, gagged, beat, and repeatedly shot and stabbed Hawkins shortly after he and his girlfriend arrived at the home in the 500 block of Berkley Street in the early afternoon of Feb. 22, officials said.

Hawkins' girlfriend, Muriah Ashley Huff, 18, also beaten, was strangled in the South Camden house. Authorities did not charge Welch, 19, in her death. Officials believe at least eight people were involved in the two killings.

Authorities declined to release additional details on Huff's death.

"These people suffered for a length of time before they finally died," Laughlin said. "There is a cruelty and callousness in the way they died that's shocking."

Hawkins and Huff were buried before dawn Feb. 23 in one grave, Laughlin said.

Welch was arrested Thursday at the Moorestown Mall. He was being held on $1 million bail in the Camden County Jail.

A witness said Welch and others assaulted and fatally shot Hawkins in the home, according to a statement of probable cause. Hawkins, 23, was stripped and then buried, Laughlin said.

Police said a tip had led them to the remains about two days after they were buried. Camden detectives saw a snow-covered patch of ground at the house that had been recently dug up, the probable cause statement said.

Officials said Welch also took part in the effort to hide the killings, by scrubbing the walls of his home with bleach and ripping up the blood-stained carpets.

Welch and Hawkins, a Mount Holly resident, knew each other, Laughlin said. Huff did not know anyone in the rowhouse, Laughlin said.

Huff was in the home while Hawkins was being tortured, but it is unclear whether she knew what was happening to him, Laughlin said.

"I don't think she deserved for that to happen to her," said a friend, Vivian Richardson, 18.

Richardson and another friend last saw Huff on the platform of the NJ Transit light rail Palmyra station around 4:30 p.m. Feb. 21.

Huff said she was heading to Camden to see Hawkins, her friends said.

The bubbly cosmetology student at the Burlington County Institute of Technology's Westampton campus wasn't in school Feb. 22, her friends said.

Huff, who wanted to own a salon and a line of hair products one day, met Hawkins through a mutual friend, her friends said.

The two had been dating for a year, her friends said.

Hawkins spent time in the foster-care system and bounced around the state's child services system, said a longtime mentor who requested anonymity. When he gained independence as an adult, he had no job skills or family, she said.

Homeless, he survived by living mostly with friends and girlfriends, the mentor said.

"He was used to bouncing around and he did the same as an adult," she said recently.