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On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, authorities in Virginia announced a break in the cases.
Elroy Harrison, 65, was identified as a suspect in both cases thanks to the relentless work of Stafford County Sheriff's Detective D.K. Wood, Sheriff David Decatur said.
Jacqueline Lard was killed in 1986, and Amy Baker in 1989. Both were residents of Stafford, but Baker was returning from visiting family in Falls Church when she went missing.
On March 4, Harrison was indicted by a Stafford County Grand Jury for the first-degree murder, abduction with the intent to defile, and aggravated malicious wounding of Stafford's Jacqueline Lard, as well as breaking and entering with the intent to commit murder.
He was arrested at his Stafford County residence on March 5, and placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond.
Harrison has been linked to Baker's death too, however, it was not immediately clear whether or not he's been charged.
Jaqueline Lard, 40, of Stafford, was last seen on Nov. 14, 1986, after work at Mount Vernon Realty in the 300 block of Garrisonville Road. She never made it home that night.
The morning of Nov. 15, 1986, employees of other businesses in the area prepared to open for the day and discovered a crime scene at the realty office, which indicated a horrific struggle, the Stafford County Sheriff's Office said.
Lard and her vehicle were both missing. Stafford County detectives, assisted by the Virginia State Police Crime Scene Unit and the FBI processed the scene and collected blood and other evidence.
The following day, two juveniles were playing in a wooded area near Railroad Avenue in Woodbridge and discovered a body beneath a pile of discarded carpet. Stafford detectives joined Prince William detectives and the FBI to diligently process the scene and identified the body as Jacqueline Lard.
"This meticulous collection of evidence would ultimately provide the suspect’s identification 37 years later," Stafford County Sheriff David Decatur said.
Jacqueline’s missing vehicle was found abandoned in Fairfax County on December 18, 1986, leading to the recovery of additional evidence. Over the years, detectives from multiple agencies, both federal and state, followed up on countless leads and conducted interviews, resulting in the elimination of numerous suspects and persons of interest.
The FBI created a task force combining the efforts of the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, Prince William County Police Department, the FBI and the DEA. DNA was extracted from the evidence, but repeated searches of the Virginia and National DNA Databanks via CODIS in addition to direct comparisons against submitted persons of interest and familial searches failed to identify the killer.
Sadly, the leads were exhausted and the investigation moved to Cold Case status.
"Sheriff Decatur would not allow this case to remain idle and Detective D.K. Wood explored a new technology, forensic investigative genetic genealogy to help identify the killer," the sheriff said.
The tenacious Detective Wood refused to give up, Decatur said. He worked with Parabon NanoLabs, a company providing DNA phenotyping.
The analysis of the DNA linked the murder of Jacqueline Lard to the unsolved 1989 murder of Amy Baker in Fairfax County. Stafford County and Fairfax County detectives joined forces, determined to bring this murder suspect to justice.
A break in the case came o Dec. 14, 2023, when a family name for Harrison was identified.
Detectives followed up on the leads this technology created and ultimately obtained a search warrant for DNA from Stafford County resident Elroy Harrison. In February of this year, the Department of Forensic Science reported the DNA was a match. After nearly four decades, the identity of the murder suspect had been revealed.
Amy Baker was had started her commute back to Stafford County from Falls Church March 29, 2989 at 8:30 p.m., but never made it home.
Around 9:55 p.m. that same night, a Virginia State Trooper discovered Baker’s vehicle unoccupied by the roadside. The next morning, seeing the vehicle in the same spot, the trooper, presuming it abandoned, had it towed. Following Baker’s failure to return home, her family reported her missing.
Upon learning of her daughter’s car being towed, Baker’s mother located and searched it, finding her belongings still inside. On March 31, the family searched the area where the car had broken down and discovered Baker’s body in a wooded area near the exit ramp from I-95 to Backlick Road in Springfield. Detectives initiated an investigation, determining that Baker’s car had run out of gas on the exit ramp.
They believe she left her vehicle to seek help at the nearest gas station, encountering the suspect who subsequently fatally strangled her. Forensic evidence was recovered from the scene.
In 2021, Fairfax County Police Department’s Cold Case detectives submitted their evidence to DNA Labs International, resulting in the development of a DNA profile. Uploading this profile to the Virginia state database revealed a link between Baker’s death and the ongoing homicide investigation of Jacqueline Lard in Stafford County.
Utilizing Parabon NanoLabs and the Virginia State Police’s Unsolved Violent Crimes and Cold Cases Analytical Support Team, funded by a National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant , detectives analyzed genetic genealogy, leading to the identification of Elroy Neal Harrison, 65, of Stafford as the suspect.
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