Stafford County, Virginia, investigators arrested a suspect Tuesday in connection to 2 chilly case murders that occurred in 1986 and 1989, after developments in DNA forensics led to his identification.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Workplace introduced that 65-year-old Elroy Harrison was indicted on Monday on expenses of first-degree homicide, abduction with intent to defile and aggravated malicious wounding, within the dying of 32-year-old Jacqueline Lard.
In a publish on Fb, the sheriff’s workplace stated Lard was final seen on Nov. 14, 1986, when she was working at Mount Vernon Realty within the 300 block of Garrison Street.
The workplace closed at 9 p.m. that evening, although Lard by no means made it dwelling.
NEVADA AND COLORADO POLICE SOLVE 2 COLD CASES LINKED TO THE SAME MAN, 16 YEARS APART
The following morning, workers of different companies within the space had been on the brink of open for the day and found a scene on the realty workplace that indicated there was some form of horrific wrestle, the sheriff’s workplace stated.
Each Lard and her car had been lacking from the scene, and detectives from the sheriff’s workplace, with the assistance of the Virginia State Police Crime Scene Unit and the FBI, processed the scene and collected proof, together with blood.
On Nov. 16, 1986, two juveniles had been taking part in in a wooded space in Woodbridge, Virginia after they found a physique below a pile of discarded carpet. Stafford’s detectives additionally processed that scene, together with the FBI and Prince William detectives, and the physique was recognized as Jacqueline Lard.
Her lacking car was discovered on Dec. 18, 1986, in Fairfax County, which additionally offered investigators with further proof to course of.
Whereas investigators from all of the businesses concerned exhausted all of the leads, none led to the identification of a suspect and the case went chilly.
As forensic investigative genetic family tree improved, Stafford County Sheriff D.P. Decatur, Jr. and Detective D.Okay. Wooden pounced on the alternative to make use of the developments to probably determine the killer.
Wooden labored with Parabon NanoLabs, which gives DNA phenotyping, to research the DNA discovered on the crime scene, which linked the homicide of Lard to the unsolved homicide of Amy Baker, who was murdered in Fairfax County in 1989.
TENNESSEE STUDENTS UNCOVER ‘BIBLE BELT STRANGLER’ AS SERIAL KILLER CULPRIT IN ‘REDHEAD MURDERS’
Stafford and Fairfax County investigators labored collectively to carry the homicide suspect to justice, and on Dec., 14, 2023, they had been in a position to get a reputation.
Following up on leads created by fashionable know-how, investigators obtained a search warrant to get DNA from Harrison, and in February, the Division of Forensic Science reported the DNA was a match.
Harrison was indicted by a Stafford County grand jury on Monday, and he was arrested Tuesday.
He has since been positioned within the Rappahannock Regional Jail and is being held with out bond.
The Fairfax County Police Division is collaborating with prosecutors to ascertain expenses in opposition to Harrison for Baker’s homicide, as properly.
In accordance with the Fairfax Police Division, 18-year-old Baker was final seen leaving a relative’s home in Falls Church on the evening of March 29, 1989.
Her automotive was discovered on the aspect of Interstate 95 later that evening. Amy’s physique was discovered on March 31, 1989, in a wooded space off the identical interstate.
