Virginia man tied to unsolved killings of 2 women in the 1980s

Nearly 40 years later, authorities in Virginia have linked a man to the separate killings of two women in the 1980s.

Elroy Harrison, 65, was indicted Monday by a county grand jury on a charge of first-degree murder in the 1986 killing of 32-year-old Jacqueline Lard, according to a statement from the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities will also seek to charge him in the 1989 slaying of 18-year-old Amy Baker.

Investigators said they used genetic genealogy to link Harrison to both murders. The technique allows investigators to compare DNA samples against public genealogy databases, narrowing a suspect list to a small geographic area, family or individual.

Repeated searches of the Virginia and national DNA databases had failed to identify Lard’s killer, according to the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators then turned to genetic genealogy, which in December of last year helped them establish a family name for the suspect in her death.

Detectives then got a search warrant for Harrison’s DNA, which was a match in Lard’s slaying, the sheriff’s office said.

Lard was last seen alive the night of Nov. 14, 1986, as the realty office she worked at closed. The next day, workers discovered a crime scene at the office that “indicated a horrific struggle,” the sheriff’s office said.

Stafford County detectives, with the help of the Virginia State Police and FBI, collected blood and other evidence, the sheriff’s office said.

Lard’s body was found by two youths on Nov. 16 in a wooded area, beneath a pile of discarded carpeting, according to the sheriff’s office. The evidence collected at the scene would help them identity a suspect 37 years later, authorities said.

Baker was last seen alive on March 29, 1989, in nearby Fairfax County, according to a  statement by the Fairfax County Police Department.

She had started driving back home that night after visiting family in Falls Church, police said. That same night, a Virginia State Police trooper found Baker’s unoccupied vehicle on the roadside, Fairfax police said.

The next morning, thinking it had been abandoned, the trooper had the vehicle towed.

Baker’s family reported her missing after she failed to return home, and upon learning that her car was towed, they went to the area where it was found and discovered her body in a wooded area next to an exit ramp, Fairfax police said.

Detectives determined that she had run out of gas and got out of the car to try and get help at the nearest gas station. After that, she encountered the suspect, who strangled her, Fairfax police said.

Cold case detectives from the Fairfax County Police Department are working alongside the Fairfax County Office of the Commonwealth Attorney to seek charges against Harrison in Baker’s death, according to the sheriff’s office in Stafford County.

Harrison was arrested Tuesday and was being held without bond at the Rappahannock Regional Jail, the sheriff’s office said. A lawyer listed for Harrison in court records was not immediately reached for comment Wednesday night.