The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that a man named Elroy Harrison, 65, has been arrested Tuesday after DNA linked him with the cold case murders in the county.
A Virginia man has been arrested after DNA has linked him with the cold case murders of two women who were killed in the 1980s, reports say.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that a man named Elroy Harrison, 65, has been arrested Tuesday after DNA linked him with the cold case murders in the county.
The victims of the two cold cases were from Stafford County and the murders occurred three years apart.
Cops said the first murder occurred in 1986 when 32-year-old Jacqueline Lard of Stafford County was last seen on Nov. 15, 1986, at the real estate office where she worked. The next morning, Lard's coworkers found a crime scene at the office that the Stafford Police Department says indicated a "horrific struggle." Investigators determined she and her vehicle were both missing. Two juveniles playing in a wooded area found Lard's body the next day beneath a pile of discarded carpets, according to CBS News.
Police say the second murder occurred in March 1989, when 18-year-old Amy Baker disappeared while visiting family in Falls Church, Virginia, Fairfax County police said. Baker never returned home from the visit and her car was found unoccupied that same night. Her family searched the area and found Baker's body in a wooded area near an exit ramp on I-95, CBS News reported.
Forensic evidence from both murders was collected and used to identify Baker and Lard's alleged killer, CBS News reported.
In 2021, detectives with the Fairfax County Police Department's cold case team submitted evidence from Baker's death to DNA Labs International and a DNA profile was created and uploaded to Virginia's state database, which allowed investigators to connect the two killings, CBS News reported.
Detectives then used forensic genetic genealogy, with the assistance of Parabon NanoLabs and the Virginia State Police's Unsolved Violent Crimes and Cold Cases Analytical Support Team, to identify the family name of a possible suspect, Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said.
On Dec. 14, 2023, a family name for the suspect was identified and detectives followed up on the leads this technology created and ultimately obtained a search warrant for DNA from Stafford County resident Elroy Harrison, Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said.
Last month, the Department of Forensic Science reported the DNA was a match. After nearly four decades, the identity of the murder suspect had been revealed, Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said.
Harrison was indicted on Monday in connection with Lard’s death by a Stafford County Grand Jury for the first-degree murder, abduction with the intent to defile, and aggravated malicious wounding of Jacqueline Lard, as well as breaking and entering with the intent to commit murder.
Harrison has not yet been charged in relation with Baker's murder, Fairfax County officials said, but an investigation is ongoing, according to CBS News.
He was arrested at his Stafford County residence Tuesday and placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond.
It is unknown if Harrison has entered a plea or obtained legal representation. Inside Edition Digital has reached out to the Stafford County Courts and Stafford County Commonwealth Attorney for more information and has not heard back.
