Man linked to ’80s Virginia homicides
Arrest made after DNA ties suspect to separate deaths of two women
One woman’s body was found in 1986, under a pile of old carpeting in a wooded area near a roadway in northern Virginia. Another was found in 1989, in underbrush off a Virginia interstate, with a large shirt wrapped around her neck.
For more than three decades, authorities had not been able to determine who was behind the murders, despite many potential leads.
Then, in February, police got a DNA match. They used genetic genealogy to make an arrest in the 1986 murder and found a link to the killing from 1989, authorities said.
Elroy Harrison, 65, of Stafford County, was indicted last week by a grand jury in the murder of Jacqueline Lard, 40, the victim found in 1986 in Woodbridge, the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Tuesday. DNA from Harrison was also linked to the murder of Amy Baker, 18, the victim found in 1989 in Springfield, the Fairfax County Police Department said in a statement.
Harrison was arrested Tuesday at his Stafford County home in northern Virginia and charged with murder, abduction, assault and burglary, police said. He was held without bond at the Rappahannock Regional Jail in Stafford, according to inmate records. His arraignment is scheduled for April 5. A lawyer for Harrison did not immediately respond to a request for comment last week.
Many questions remain about how Harrison evaded police for so many years.
Before the killings, he was arrested in 1983 for robbing a Stafford Couknty bank, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
Harrison was released from jail June 30, 1986, according to court records. And after that, no other arrests were reflected in a public records search.
Authorities found Harrison after detectives with the Fairfax County police submitted evidence from Baker’s case in 2021 to DNA Labs International, a company based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, that specializes in forensic DNA analysis. The company came up with a DNA profile for a possible suspect that matched an analysis by Parabon NanoLabs, a company in Reston, in Lard’s case, according to authorities.
That profile was uploaded to a state database, which revealed a link between Baker’s death and the investigation of Lard’s homicide, according to the Police Department. Based on the DNA profile, authorities identified a possible last name for the suspect, and they later sought a search warrant for a DNA sample from Harrison, authorities said.
Baker’s mother, Sue Baker, 74, said Wednesday learning about the arrest was “surreal.”
“We never thought this would happen,” she said.
Amy Baker went missing March 29, 1989, according to Fairfax police. After visiting family in Falls Church, she headed home to Stafford County around 8:30 p.m., but around 9:55 p.m., a Virginia state trooper found her vehicle by the side of the road.
Her family discovered her body March 31 in a wooded area near Interstate 95, police said. Her mother said police had determined that Baker’s vehicle had run out of gas and she had walked up the interstate toward a gas station.
“And that’s where she was abducted and taken into the woods and what happened, happened,” she said. Baker died of strangulation by ligature, according to her death certificate.
The previous victim, Lard, died of asphyxiation, according to her death certificate. Lard was last seen Nov. 14, 1986, at a real estate office where she worked in Stafford County, according to authorities. Her body was discovered two days later by two children who were playing in a wooded area near Woodbridge, police said.
The Potomac News reported on Nov. 19, 1986, police believed Lard had been abducted from her office and was later beaten and suffocated. She was reported missing Nov. 15 after her co-workers found “blood, some clothing and signs of struggle” at their office, the newspaper reported.
It was unclear why either woman was targeted. The Associated Press reported in November 1986 that Lard’s husband, Ronald Lard, was an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, but authorities found no evidence linking Lard’s work to his wife’s killing.
Relatives of Jacqueline Lard did not respond to requests for comment.
Maj. Shawn Kimmitz of the Stafford County Sheriff ’s Office said in a statement Tuesday that his agency “never gave up on this case.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jacqueline’s and Amy’s family and friends, and we hope this arrest can bring them some peace,” Kimmitz said.
Sue Baker said that she and her family were preparing for what could be a lengthy process in court.
“We want this guy to stay in jail forever,” she said. “I want to see this man suffer like my family has.”
While the arrest was a welcome development for her family, Baker said she did not feel the ordeal was over.
“There’s no closure when you lose a child,” she said. “Closure to me is like putting a top on a pan. We’re not doing that.”