Metropolitan Police have arrested a Prince George’s County man and charged him with murder in the death of a D.C. yoga instructor and actress who had gone missing on Christmas Day.

Tricia McCauley, 46, was found dead in her white two-door Toyota Scion hatchback in the 2200 block of M Street NW early Tuesday.

Police said ruled the death a homicide, noting that Ms. McCauley died of asphyxia due to ligature strangulation with blunt force trauma.

Tuesday morning, police said a suspect had been arrested in the area where Ms. McCauley’s car was found. That afternoon, they identified the suspect as Adrian Duane Johnson, 29, of Upper Marlboro.

Mr. Johnson initially had been charged with simple assault. But following an autopsy Tuesday, police also charged him with first-degree murder.

At a Tuesday morning press conference, interim police Chief Peter Newsham said Ms. McCauley was in the car when the suspect was taken into custody. Investigators, however, did not know when she died during the 30-hour period between her disappearance and when she was found.

“The investigation is progressing rapidly,” the police chief said.

Chief Newsham said that detectives do not believe the suspect knew Ms. McCauley. He did not provide details about the killing except to say there appeared to be trauma to Ms. McCauley’s body.

Ms. McCauley was supposed to attend Christmas dinner at the home of a friend whom she contacted around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. She never arrived, and stopped responding to calls and text messages.

She later missed a scheduled flight Monday morning out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

That set off a citywide search that started at her home near the 2200 block of North Capitol Street in the District’s Bloomingdale neighborhood.

Chief Newsham said the suspect took Ms. McCauley’s car with her in it and drove through the city Monday, and at one point robbed a CVS pharmacy in the 700 block of Fourth Street NW and assaulted employees there. Chief Newsham said that incident is what linked the suspect to Ms. McCauley’s car.

The news of Ms. McCauley’s death was first announced on Facebook by her brother Brian McCauley and confirmed at a Tuesday morning press conference with Metropolitan Police.

“Tricia is gone, they have found her body. Thank you all for your work, support and love. To all of her DC family, I know she truly thought of you that way, thank you for being there for her all these years,” Mr. McCauley wrote on Facebook. “Hang on to each other.”

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