Editor’s note: This story, originally published at 3:42 p.m. on March 31, 2025, was updated at 12:35 p.m. on April 1, 2025, to add details from Spencer Dillon Hamilton’s charging documents.
A Potomac man who allegedly confessed to police about killing a family member was charged Sunday with the murder of his grandmother, Montgomery County police said Monday in a press release.
Spencer Dillon Hamilton, 27, faces one charge of first-degree murder related to the death of Pauline Yvonne Titus-Dillon, 87, the release said.
He was ordered to be held without bond Monday during a hearing in Montgomery County District Court in Rockville, according to digital court records.
Attorney information for Hamilton was not available Tuesday afternoon via digital court records.
According to county police, officers responded shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday to a residence in the 12600 block of Tribunal Lane in Potomac after Hamilton walked into the Rockville City police station and allegedly reported he had killed a family member. When county officers arrived at the Potomac home, they located an unresponsive Titus-Dillon in the bathroom.
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service crews performed life-saving efforts on Titus-Dillon but were unsuccessful, according to police. Titus-Dillon was pronounced dead at the scene.
Titus-Dillon’s body was scheduled for an autopsy Monday at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.
County detectives in the department’s Major Crimes Division also responded to the Potomac home and identified Hamilton as the suspect, police said. He was later arrested at the Rockville City Police station.
According to charging documents, Hamilton admitted to the killing to county investigators and reported waiting in her closet before the attack. He told investigators that sometime between 4 and 4:30 a.m., he emerged from the closet as his grandmother was exiting her bathroom and stabbed her in the back and head. He also admitted to punching and strangling her.
Hamilton also told investigators he moved Titus-Dillon’s body to her bathroom and “attempted to clean the crime scene,” according to charging documents. Before fleeing her home, Hamilton allegedly said he that took his grandmother’s credit card, cell phone and laptop.
When Hamilton was taken into custody, he was in possession of his grandmother’s property as well as the weapon believed to have been used in the killing, charging documents state.
Hamilton is scheduled to return to court for a bond review hearing on April 7 and a preliminary hearing on April 25, digital court records indicate.
