Man convicted of unsolved 1979 Maryland murder – NBC4 Washington

A Washington, D.C., man has been convicted of first-degree murder and rape in a case that had been unsolved for decades.

In 1979, Vickie Lynn Belk was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and shot to death. Belk, a 28-year-old mother, worked in D.C. and was a Suitland resident, but her body was discovered miles away in the area of ​​Metropolitan Church Road and Route 227 in Charles County, the sheriff’s office said.

More than 40 years later, DNA evidence finally linked Andre Taylor to Belk’s murder, prosecutors say.

“Our community is a little bit safer today with this person behind bars,” the victim’s son, Lamont Belk, said when Taylor’s arrest was announced last year. Lamont Belk was just 7 years old when his mother was killed.

After nine days of trial, the jury took just two hours to return a guilty verdict on Thursday.

Advances in DNA technology helped Charles County investigators find the suspect, News4’s Darcy Spencer reports.

“These cold cases are rarely solved. They are solved with dogged determination.”

On August 28, 1979, Belk’s boyfriend reported her missing to Prince George’s County police. He hadn’t seen her since the day before, when they were working together in D.C. She hadn’t returned to her apartment in Suitland.

Investigators said Taylor, who was 18 at the time, kidnapped Belk when she went to his car parked at RFK Stadium and sexually assaulted her before killing her.

The next day, a teenager called police after discovering a body on the ground in a wooded area in Charles County. The victim, who had been shot, was identified as Belk.

At that time no suspects were identified and the case eventually went cold.

But after forensic technology improved, detectives submitted Belk’s clothing for analysis in 2022. Scientists developed a profile of her killer and entered it into a national DNA database, prosecutors said. Later that year, they learned of a DNA match between Belk and Taylor.

Detectives initially struggled to find Taylor, who had no known address since 2019. Several agencies worked together and eventually found him living in DC, and he was arrested in June 2023.

Prosecutors say that while speaking to detectives, Taylor admitted to “actions that amounted to the rape of Belk, but denied having any involvement in her murder.”

There was no evidence that Belk and Taylor knew each other before the crime.

During the investigation, detectives learned that Taylor had been arrested for violent crimes in the District and that, at the time of the murder, he lived less than four miles from where Belk’s body was found. Taylor also had connections to D.C., where investigators believe Belk was abducted.

Taylor faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced in September.

“These cold cases are rarely solved. They are solved with determination and talent,” State Attorney Tony Covington said in a news release. “I am very grateful that Charles County, after 45 years, was able to close a chapter for the Belk family and achieve justice for Vickie Lynn Belk.”

Judy Belk has said she and her sister were involved in integrating a public school in Alexandria, Virginia. The family created the Vickie Belk Scholarship Foundation in her honor, which has supported more than 100 students in Alexandria.

“As horrible as Vickie’s death was, we decided to focus on how she lived,” Judy Belk said last year.