MILLERSVILLE, Md. — Investigators searched a plot of land beside townhomes in Millersville on Thursday morning, combing for evidence in connection with the late 2003 disappearance and murder of 18-year-old Nicholas Tonic.
"It's one of these cases that's stuck with me over 22, 23 years," Det. Robb Cremen, who originally worked the case more than 20 years ago, told WMAR.
Anne Arundel County Police, FBI and Homeland Security roamed the area with metal detectors, shovels and other technology. Authorities hoped to find evidence to get them closer to closing the two-decades-old cold case, after obtaining a search warrant two days prior.
"This location is in close proximity to where evidence, and people we've identified, that could possibly be involved, were around this area at the time. So that's important to us, and we've got some updated information that's pointed us in this area," Det. Cremen said.
In December 2003, Tonic was reported missing after he borrowed the car and never came home. Days later, the car was found, abandoned and bloodied in Millersville.
The next month, Tonic was found dead in Hanover.
In January 2025, Tonic's mom, Susan Baker, sat down with Maryland Cold Cases reporter Jack Watson after asking the WMAR-2 News team to put a spotlight on her son's unsolved murder.
"He was happy, you know, he was looking forward to the future," Baker told Watson in January.
READ MORE: Anne Arundel County mom seeks answers in son's 21-year unsolved murder
"Time has passed," Baker added, "but the feeling doesn't go away. So that same feeling that I felt when I went to that car, when I looked in the car, when I saw, the blood stains in the car. That doesn't go away, that longing."
No one was convicted for his murder, but more than two decades later, police are still actively working the case.
Police told WMAR-2 News its January reporting got them to the Thursday search. Anne Arundel County Det. George Davis said the story was 'crucial' and that phones lit up with information.
"Right now, based on your reporting, has brought us this location, we're circling in on persons of interest that would have been involved," Det. Davis told WMAR Thursday.
"And we've partnered with the FBI and Homeland Security, who are helping us in this investigation, using not only their investigative tools, and their technologies, but also their laboratories, and we're re-looking at everything again and we're finding things that in 2003 wasn't available, but now are," he added.
Cremen notes time has changed not only technology, but relationships. Davis said it's changed the outlooks of some of the people with whom he's spoken.
"It's a common theme we're hearing now. 'It's been too long, I've held on to this secret for too long.' And it's time for me to speak out. And it brings us to places like this, because somebody finally felt as though 'I had to unburden myself, I can't hold on to this any longer," Davis said.
"The Tonic family deserves that answer.'"
If you have any information related to Tonic's murder, you can call them at 410-222-4731, where you can remain anonymous.