The man who allegedly murdered a counselor at his group home in Revere yesterday was ordered off to a secure facility today for a mental health evaluation, Suffolk County District attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

DESHAWN JAMES CHAPPELL (D.O.B. 9/9/83), formerly of Chelsea, was scheduled to be arraigned on a single count of murder for the death of 25-year-old Stephanie Moulton. Instead, after hearing from a court clinician, Chelsea District Court Judge James H. Wexler ordered Chappell transported to Bridgewater State Hospital.

“It’s my opinion that Mr. Chappell doesn’t understand what’s going on around him,” Dr. Naomi Levitt told the court after meeting with the defendant this morning. “I would recommend further evaluation … in conditions of strict security.”

Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin, chief of Conley’s Homicide Unit, did not oppose that recommendation but specifically requested that Chappell be sent to the secure facility at Bridgewater.

Chappell’s arrest last night came after a fast-breaking investigation that led State and local police from Revere to Lynn and into the Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston.

Revere Police and the Revere Fire Department responded to the Ocean Avenue scene shortly before noon yesterday for a report of a fire. On arrival, they found a large amount of blood and other evidence of a violent assault, along with indications that a small fire had been deliberately set.

Because the evidence at the scene suggested life-threatening injuries to a victim not present at the scene, Revere Police notified State Police assigned to the Suffolk DA’s office, who have jurisdiction over all death investigations in Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop.

A short time later, Lynn Police and State Police assigned to the Essex DA’s office responded to a church parking lot on South Common Street in Lynn for a report of a found body. The remains at that scene were soon identified as those of Moulter, who was missing from her job as a resident counselor at North Shore Mental Health.

Chappell, a resident at North Shore Mental Health, was also missing. So was Moulton’s off-white Chrysler PT Cruiser. In desperate hope that she might still be alive, authorities launched an all-out manhunt for the suspect and the vehicle.

Authorities undertook a manhunt for Chappell and soon located Moulter’s vehicle near the intersection of Dorchester Avenue and Gibson Street in Dorchester. That vehicle has been seized pending the execution of a search warrant.

Based on evidence at all three locations, as well as statements from various witnesses, Conley approved a warrant charging Chappell with murder late yesterday afternoon. Investigators released his photograph to the public a short time later.

Acting on information gathered throughout the day, members of the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit apprehended Chappell at his grandmother’s residence on Rockland Street in Roxbury at about 7:45 p.m.

Katherine Moran is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Chappell is represented by attorney Jeffrey Karp. He will return to court on Feb. 10.