Update: Police Believe They've Found William McQuain's Remains

(Updated, 4:20 p.m. Oct. 19) Video footage show Curtis Lopez and his 11-year-old stepson William McQuain at a gas station 200 yards from the place where police found what they believe are the boy’s remains, Montgomery County Police said.

Surveillance footage from Clarksburg Liberty Gas on Oct. 1, Montgomery County Police spokesman Capt. Paul Sparks said, show Lopez with William McQuain inside the vehicle of the boy’s mother Jane McQuain — who was found dead in their Germantown home Wednesday, Oct. 12.

The two are also shown together in video footage from a self-storage unit off Wisteria Drive the morning of Saturday, Oct. 1.

On Tuesday, a K-9 officer found what police believe were William’s remains. A medical examiner’s report has not been released for William McQuain.

(Updated, 6:17 p.m.) When word got out that William McQuain was missing and that his mother had been found killed, the community mobilized to find him. Now those who got to know the 11-year-old are beginning to grapple with the fact that he may be gone for good.

“It’s devastating,” said Brandi Page, a small group leader at Journey’s Crossing Church in Germantown, where William McQuain and his mother Jane McQuain attended since 2009.

“The reason there was such a community outpouring was because he was just naturally a good-hearted boy,” Page said.

This morning, police found what they believe to be William McQuain’s remains, in a wooded area off Clarksburg Road, near Route 355. The boy and his mother had been reported missing since last week. Police discovered Jane McQuain’s body Wednesday night. McQuain’s estranged husband, Curtis Lopez, William’s stepfather, was arrested in North Carolina on Thursday.

William McQuain had just “graduated’ to the youth group of his church. When word got out that he was missing, the church held a vigil outside Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, where William was a sixth grader.

They had not given up hope that William would be found alive.

“Tonight is a time of trouble, tonight is a time where we hope and we pray that outcomes would happen that would be joyous, that we could celebrate,” youth pastor Scott Velasquez, during Friday night’s vigil. After leading a group of about 30 people through a song of Amazing Grace.

On Sunday, a contingent of friends and loved ones searched the woods near his home at Briarcliff Terrace. Police also led two searches on Sunday, but were unable to find William.

Now, Page said she was still trying to figure out how to tell her young daughters that William might be gone.

“There’s no longer an innocent world for them,” Page said.

Members of Jane and William McQuain’s family have asked for privacy, Page said.

Police said a forensics team is collecting evidence and that the medical examiner would confirm the body's identity.

Video footage showed William McQuain and his stepfather Curtis Lopez entering and leaving a self-storage unit off Wisteria Drive the morning of Saturday, Oct. 1,

"He showed no signs of distress and appeared to be in a playful mood," Montgomery County Police spokeswoman Rebecca Innocenti said, referencing the footage.

Police said the same clothing found on the remains appears to be the same clothing William McQuain was wearing in the video footage.

WJLA reported that on the day Jane McQuain was found dead, Charlotte police responded to a traffic accident involving McQuain’s SUV and that the driver, Pleshette Caldwell, 24, claimed to be driving “her boyfriend’s mother’s vehicle.”

When Lopez was arrested, WJLA reports, police found McQuain’s credit card and several copies of a marriage certificate. Lopez reportedly waived his extradition to Maryland during his first court appearance in North Carolina.

Lopez has a criminal past. According to records from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Lopez was sentenced Sept. 28, 1987 to serve 10 to 22 years for a riot in Dauphin County, Pa., department of corrections spokeswoman Sue Bensinger told Patch.

Lopez was on parole from Oct. 4, 2000, through Jan. 7, 2009, Bensinger said.

(Updated, 2:49 p.m.) Montgomery County police have found human remains they believe are those of 11-year-old William McQuain, Montgomery County Police spokeswoman Rebecca Innocenti told Patch.

Innocenti said the body was found 9:11 a.m. Tuesday by a K-9 officer in the wooded area off Clarksburg Road, a quarter mile west of Route 355.

Police said video footage obtained from a storage unit off Wisteria Drive showed William McQuain and his stepfather Curtis Lopez entering and leaving together the morning of Saturday, Oct. 1,

"He showed no signs of distress and appeared to be in a playful mood," Innocenti said.

The same clothing William McQuain was wearing in the footage appeared to be the same clothing found on the remains, Innocenti said.

Police found William's mother, Jane McQuain, 51, stabbed and beaten to death in her Germantown apartment Wednesday. An Amber alert had been issued for William, who was a sixth grader at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Germantown.

Innocenti said a forensics team is collecting evidence and that the medical examiner would confirm the body's identity.

Lopez, who is McQuain’s estranged husband, has been charged with murder.

WJLA reported that on the day McQuain was found dead, Charlotte police responded to a traffic accident involing McQuain’s SUV and that the driver, Pleshette Caldwell, 24, claimed to be driving “her boyfriend’s mother’s vehicle.”

When Lopez was arrested, WJLA reports, police found McQuain’s credit card and several copies of a marriage certificate. Lopez reportedly waived his extradition to Maryland during his first court appearance in North Carolina.

Lopez has a criminal past. According to records from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Lopez was sentenced Sept. 28, 1987 to serve 10 to 22 years for a riot in Dauphin County, Pa., department of corrections spokeswoman Sue Bensinger told Patch.

Lopez was on parole from Oct. 4, 2000 through Jan. 7, 2009, Bensinger said.

(Updated, 2:20 p.m.) Montgomery County police have found human remains they believe are those of 11-year-old William McQuain, Montgomery County Police spokeswoman Rebecca Innocenti told Patch.