Husband is charged in 2006 death of wife

Ex-Balto. Co. resident reported her missing

Ten years after a Baltimore County man reported his wife missing, he has been charged with murder in her death.

County police said Monday that advances in DNA technology helped lead to the arrest of Michael Amick, 56, who had moved to Hilo, Hawaii, in the 2006 death of his wife, Roxanne Amick.

Michael Amick was taken into custody last week while visiting family in the Baltimore area.

His defense attorney called the case “completely circumstantial.”

“This case will be defended vigorously,” said attorney Joseph Murtha, who has represented Amick since police identified him as a person of interest in the case in 2006.

A relative of Roxanne Amick’s said her family did not want to comment on the arrest.

Police say Michael Amick reported his wife missing on Sept. 14, 2006. They say he told investigators she had left their home in the Perry Hall area in his minivan the day before to go shopping and had never come back.

Police found the vehicle, a 1998 Plymouth Voyager, behind the Perry Hall Crossing Shopping Center in the 8800 block of Belair Road, near their home. The next day, Roxanne Amick’s body was found in a wooded area a few miles away, wrapped in blankets. The area was filled with poison ivy, police say.

An autopsy found she died of multiple injuries, and her death was ruled a homicide.

Police say Michael Amick told investigators in 2006 that his wife left the house because they had been arguing. He also said they had recently been in counseling for domestic violence. Police say officers saw a rash on his arms, starting above his wrists. He was examined at a hospital, they say, and doctors concluded the rash was a reaction to a plant such as poison ivy.

Police said Monday that advances in DNA technology allowed them to link work gloves found in the minivan to Michael Amick.

In charging documents filed in District Court in Towson, police wrote that detectives believe the gloves would have protected his hands — which had no rash — from the poison ivy.

Police did not say when they knew they had found the DNA match.

In charging documents, police focus on the blankets in which Roxanne Amick’s body was found — one an orange tiger blanket, the other a cream-colored lion blanket. The blankets belonged to the Amicks, police said.

At a bail review hearing Monday in Towson, Murtha said, he questioned what evidence investigators had now that they didn’t have in 2006.

“It’s an extraordinary case that is completely circumstantial,” he said. “The state relies upon the fact that he had poison ivy on his arms, and that his DNA is located in a vehicle that he owned with his wife.”

Police said they obtained a warrant after prosecutors reviewed the case.

“There are other aspects of the case that were recently reviewed and caused us to decide to go forward,” Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said.

Michael Amick was in the Baltimore area with his children to visit his mother whenhe was arrested, Murtha said. He was being held at the county detention center Monday in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Amick worked as a dance instructor for a continuing education program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, a spokeswoman for the university confirmed.