Only days before police charged Dennis Tetso with his wife’s four-year-old murder, officers served a search warrant on Tetso’s Rosedale property, measuring the car in which Tracey Tetso was traveling the night of her disappearance in March 2005.

David Irwin, who represented Dennis Tetso at a bail review, said Tuesday the measurements were apparently an attempt to match the car to the image on a surveillance video taken March 6, 2005, at the parking lot of a Days Inn in Glen Burnie.

On the video, a male figure is seen driving the car, a Pontiac Trans-Am, into the parking lot, then getting out and walking from the vehicle, police said.

Police and prosecutors said they have mainly “circumstantial evidence” against 44-year-old Dennis Tetso — a statement Irwin said bolsters his client’s case.

“They have no witnesses, no confession and no evidence,” Irwin said.

On Monday, Baltimore County Circuit Judge Patrick Cavanaugh ordered Tetso’s bail set at $50,000. He has posted the amount and has returned to home and work, Irwin said.

“He’s not a flight risk,” Irwin said. “He’s stayed in the area for 4 1/2 years after this happened.”

The arrest for alleged murder marked the latest development in a case that has stood as an area mystery for years.

After Tracey went missing four years ago, Dennis Tetso said in an interview with the Northeast Booster, “For the record, I love her with all my heart.”

Concerns from family and friends

Yet when news of Dennis Tetso’ arrest broke last week, friends and family of Tracey Tetso said the development was not a surprise to them.

“It’s a start,” said Tracey’s father, Rick Gardner of Ferndale. “It’s four years and four months late. It’s been a long time coming. If he’s guilty, I’m glad of it.”

Gardner said he believed Dennis Tetso was controlling and possessive of his daughter.

“I didn’t care for him from the beginning,” Gardner said. “My daughter stood up to him. ... At least she did when she was alive.”

Tracey’s friend, Alisha Barnes, whom Tracey met through Dennis, said she was “extremely happy” police had made an arrest.

“I’m not surprised,” Barnes said, referring to the fact that Dennis Tetso had been charged in the case. “I’m looking forward to this case moving forward.”

The couple began dating in 1998, when Tracey was working at a Wawa convenience store in Pasadena, and Dennis would stop by for his morning coffee before getting on the road.

They lived together for five years before Tetso “popped the question and put the rock on her finger,” he told the Booster four years ago.

Friends and family say they had their doubts about the union.

“Even on her wedding day, I asked her, ‘Is this what you want?’ ” said her father, Richard Gardner of Ferndale. “She said, ‘I guess so.’ ”

Barnes, a friend and co-worker of Tracey’s, was a bridesmaid.

“She had love for him, but she was not in love with him,” Barnes said. “But she had invested so much time, and by that time she was planning a wedding and had bridesmaids, too. ... She thought maybe it would work out in the end.”

Before the first year of marriage was through, Tracey “wanted to call it quits,” her father said.

Family and friends said she had contacted a lawyer to begin divorce proceedings.

Dennis Tetso said the problems were nothing out of the ordinary. He told the Booster he knew his wife had begun seeing another man, but took the news in stride.

“Hey, what are you going to do? Things happen,” he said. “We decided to pretty much separate for a bit and see what goes from there.”

She was 32 years old at the time of her disappearance.

Police confident of charge

Police said that at the time of his wife’s disappearance, Dennis Tetso told officers that Tracey had left for a Motley Crue concert in Washington in her black, 1996 Pontiac Trans-Am, and never returned.

Four years ago Tracey’s boyfriend, Christian Sinnott, told the Booster that she was supposed to meet him at the concert, but never arrived.

Her car was found 10 days later at a Days Inn hotel parking lot in the 6600 block of Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie.

A Baltimore County police spokesman, Cpl. Mike Hill, said investigators in the cold case squad reviewed the case “many, many times” before deciding last week to meet with prosecutors about it.

After that meeting with the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office, they decided to bring the case to the grand jury, Hill said.

He said “new technology” aided the decision to proceed with charges against Dennis Tetso. Police submitted images from the surveillance footage to the FBI for analysis.

Hill said police and prosecutors “feel confident” they can win a conviction against Dennis Tetso for the alleged murder despite his wife’s missing body — and he said investigators will continue looking for Tracey Tetso’s remains.

“We still don’t have Tracey’s body,” Hill said. “We’d like to find her body somewhere.”

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