Man Found Guilty Of The 1979 Cold Case Murder of Vickie Lynn Belk
Source: News – The BayNet
Sheriff Berry, and officers of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office gathered for the announcement of the 44-year-old cold case arrest on July 13, 2023.
LA PLATA, Md.—Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County, announced that on Thursday, July 18, 2024, a Charles County jury, after a 9-day trial and approximately two hours of deliberation, convicted Andre Taylor, 63, of the 1979 First-Degree Murder and First-Degree Rape of Vickie Lynn Belk.
Commenting on the case, State’s Attorney Tony Covington said, “I can’t give enough credit to the Assistant State’s Attorneys that put in ridiculously long hours and effort to achieve justice in this case. John Stackhouse and Jonathan Beattie were phenomenal. And the Sheriff’s Office in this cold case investigation, led by Detective Sergeant John Elliott and all the other police officers in this case should know I don’t take their work for granted. These cold cases are rarely solved. They get solved with dogged determination and talent. I am very grateful that Charles County, after 45 years, was able to bring some closure for the Belk family and justice for Vickie Lynn Belk.”
On August 28, 1979, Belk’s then-boyfriend reported her missing to the Prince George’s County Police Department after last seeing her the day before at their shared place of work in Washington, D.C. Belk had not returned to her apartment in Suitland, MD.
On August 29, 1979, a local teenager called 911 after noticing a body on the ground in a wooded location in the area of Metropolitan Church Road and Route 227. Officers with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) responded to the location and discovered the body of a woman with a gunshot wound to the right side of the head and undressed from the waist down.
On August 30, 1979, Belk was positively identified as the woman who was discovered in the wooded area. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore ruled her cause of death to be from the gunshot wound.