PORTLAND — A 19-year-old New York man has been arrested for the alleged murder of a Westbrook woman whose body was discovered Jan. 17 in a Riverside Street motel parking lot, Police Chief Michael Sauschuck announced Wednesday.

Anthony Pratt, of the New York City borough of Queens, was taken into custody there Tuesday for allegedly killing 29-year-old Margarita Fisenko Scott with a single shot from a handgun, Sauschuck said at a press conference.

Scott, who was estranged from her husband, was dating Pratt at the time of her death. Saushchuck declined to speculate on a motive for the murder, but said, “There’s the potential for domestic violence overtones as well as drug-related activity.”

Police believe Scott was killed in the first-floor apartment of a building at 266 West Concord St., where she sometimes stayed.

Scott’s body was found in a 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer SUV parked two miles away, at Motel 6 at 1 Riverside St. Police believe Scott was killed in November 2012 and her body dumped in the SUV, which was abandoned at the motel. The SUV is registered in the name of Scott’s husband, Cary Scott.

The handgun used in the killing was stolen in a burglary in central Maine, and then sold in Portland, according to Sauschuck. He would not explain how Pratt allegedly came to have the weapon.

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Sauschuck said Pratt was a subject of the homicide investigation from its beginning. He has a police record, although it is “nothing of significance,” the chief said.

Cary Scott was never a suspect and was “incredibly cooperative” in the investigation, Sauschuck added.

Portland police detectives worked closely with the New York City Police Department in apprehending Pratt, and questioned him in New York, the chief said.

Pratt is being held in New York pending extradition proceedings, and was scheduled to appear before a judge Wednesday.

William Hall can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 106 or whall@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @hallwilliam4.

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Portland police in January at 266 West Concord St., where Margarita Fisenko Scott was allegedly murdered.


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