Two cold case murders from the 1980s linked to the same suspect have been solved using genetic genealogy, and a Stafford man has been charged with one of them.
One murder happened in Stafford County in 1986 and the other in Fairfax County in 1989.
Elroy Harrison, 65, has been charged with the 1986 Stafford County killing of Jacqueline Lard, who was last seen working at Mount Vernon Realty as the Garrisonville Road business closed at 9 p.m. on November 14, 1986. The 32-year-old never made it home. The next day, nearby businesses would find the crime scene at the real estate office, the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said.
The following day, kids playing in a wooded area in Woodbridge would find Lard’s body beneath discarded carpet. Her car would be found abandoned in Fairfax County a month later.
“Stafford detectives joined Prince William detectives and the FBI to diligently process the scene and identified the deceased as Jacqueline Lard,” news release said. “This meticulous collection of evidence would ultimately provide the suspect’s identification 37 years later.”
At the time, the FBI created a task force to solve the murder of Lard, who was married to a DEA agent, but the case would go cold.
Working with Parabon NanoLabs, a company that provides DNA phenotyping, the Stafford cold case murder would be linked to the unsolved 1989 Fairfax County murder of 18-year-old Amy Baker of Stafford. Detectives from both departments then worked together to figure out who the suspect was.
On March 29, 1989, Baker never made it home after visiting family in Falls Church, Fairfax County police said. Her vehicle would be found by the roadside and towed the next morning. Her family, who had reported her missing, learned the car had been towed and went back to the scene where it had broken down. They found her body in a wooded area near the exit ramp from Interstate 95 to Backlick Road in Springfield. She had been strangled.
Fairfax County police identified Harrison as a suspect but have not charged him yet.
In Stafford County, Harrison faces first-degree murder, abduction with the intent to defile, aggravated malicious wounding, and breaking and entering with the intent to commit murder in the killing of Lard.
Feature image of Jacqueline Lard (left) courtesy Stafford County Sheriff’s Office and of Amy Baker (right) courtesy Fairfax County Police
For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine’s News newsletter.
