Authorities say Decker and longtime girlfriend Jessica Baker are connected to a months-long string of burglaries. They were dubbed the "Pillowcase Burglars."

Darren Decker, one half of the duo authorities dubbed as the “pillowcase burglars” earlier this year, now faces a first-degree murder charge in Marion County.

A grand jury has indicted Decker, 41, on one count of first-degree murder, one count of burglary of a dwelling with a firearm and one count of grand theft, according to Assistant State Attorney Amy Berndt. The murder charge corresponds to the January death of Tamara Bedenbaugh, a 57-year-old Ocala woman found dead in her home after an apparent home invasion.

Authorities have suspected Decker in Bedenbaugh’s murder since at least April, when he and longtime girlfriend Jessica Baker were arrested in connection with a months-long string of 60-some burglaries that stretched across Alachua, Citrus, Levy, Marion and Sumter counties.

During an April press conference at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, which included representatives from several law enforcement agencies, authorities named the couple as persons of interest in Bedenbaugh’s murder and suspects in the April murder of composer Don “Terry” Plumeri.

Decker has not been charged in connection with Plumeri’s murder, which occurred on the Citrus County side of Dunnellon. Lindsay Blair, a spokeswoman with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, said that investigation is ongoing.

Baker is not named in the indictment for Bedenbaugh’s murder.

Decker and Baker came to Ocala from Ulster County, New York, in 2008. They continued a history of entrepreneurship locally, opening Double D’s Automotive on Northeast 14th Street in 2011 and later picking up a lease for a Northeast 25th Avenue bar that Decker renamed All About That Beer.

Their burglary spree is said to have started in January, months after the couple left the bar business. At the press conference and in several arrest affidavits already filed in circuit courts in the area, authorities accuse them of breaking into homes and swiping guns, jewelry and small electronics. They are said to have carried the loot away in pillowcases likewise taken from the homes, leading authorities to nickname them the “pillowcase burglars.”

At Bedenbaugh’s home, on Northwest County Road 225-A, detectives with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office reported that jewelry, cash and a wallet were missing. Detectives said someone had forcibly entered the home through the front door.

Bedenbaugh’s husband, from whom she was separated, found her dead in the home on Jan. 25.

Decker and Baker have been in custody since April, when a multi-agency team, which had been tracking their movements since some stolen items cropped up online, finally confirmed a burglary in Sumter County. They were arrested following a planned traffic stop in Marion County.

— Contact Nicki Gorny at 352-867-4065, nicki.gorny@ocala.com or @Nicki_Gorny.