Twenty years after Denise Horsey was found stabbed in a Salisbury alley, her killer has pleaded guilty — her family finally has an answer.

Twenty years after Denise Horsey was found stabbed in a Salisbury alley, her killer has pleaded guilty — her family finally has an answer.

Tyrone Hughey, 44, pleaded guilty Oct. 20 in Wicomico County Circuit Court to second-degree murder. Sentencing is set for January 2027. Already serving a lengthy sentence on an unrelated case, he stays in custody.

On April 8, 2006, Salisbury officers answering reports of a woman screaming found Horsey with multiple stab wounds in an alley behind 306 Naylor St. She died at Peninsula Regional Medical Center. The case went cold for lack of evidence.

In 2025, Salisbury police reopened it. Detective Fairman re-interviewed 2006 witnesses and found new ones, who said Hughey had admitted the killing and destroyed evidence.

State's Attorney Jamie Dykes praised the investigators who "refused to let Denise Horsey be forgotten."

Sources: Wicomico County State's Attorney's announcement, via Delmarva Now and N'Cuffs.
Photo: Wicomico County Courthouse, Salisbury — Wikimedia Commons.