“It really doesn’t get any more horrible than that”: Washington man convicted of murdering Maryland woman in 1979

A Washington, D.C. man was sentenced to life in prison Friday for the rape and murder of a Maryland woman in a case that remained unsolved for more than four decades.

Andre Taylor, 63, was found guilty in July of the premeditated murder of Vickie Lynn Belk in 1979.

In a press release, Charles County District Court Judge H. James West said Belk “left a tremendous legacy and the family is carrying on that tremendous legacy.”

“The crime is a horrific loss of a human life – the violence was extreme. The level of fear and terror that preceded the violence is not present in most cases,” West said, adding that the murder was “so heinous that I cannot imagine any lesser punishment being appropriate.”

Charles County Prosecutor Tony Covington said the murder caused “generational trauma” because it took 45 years to solve. Covington admired Belk's family for their “great courage, determination and decency” throughout the legal process.

“[Belk’s] “Her son grew up without a mother. Her parents had to bury their daughter. Her parents were on their deathbed not knowing who killed their daughter. Her grandchildren never had the opportunity to know their grandmother,” Covington said in a press release. “When you victimize someone like that and then murder them, it really doesn't get any more cruel than that.”

Belk's disappearance and murder

At the time of her death, 28-year-old Belk was living in Suitland, Maryland, and working for the Department of Agriculture. But on August 28, 1979, her boyfriend reported her missing after she failed to return home from work.

A day later, Belk's body was found by a teenager on Route 277 in Charles County. She had a gunshot wound to the side of her head and was naked from the waist down, prosecutors said.

Authorities immediately began investigating her murder, but as Charles County detectives unsuccessfully tried to find new leads and clues, the case eventually stalled.

DNA breakthrough in the case

In recent years, however, Detective Sgt. John Elliott of the Charles County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division has taken up the case again.

Thanks to advances in forensic science, investigators submitted Belk's clothing for more extensive DNA testing in 2022.

Enough of the suspect's DNA was collected to be submitted to the FBI's national DNA database, CODIS.

In November 2022, a breakthrough in the case came when the sheriff's office was notified that DNA results showed a match: Andre Taylor.

Taylor was arrested by authorities in June 2023 and charged with Belk's murder. According to prosecutors, he denied to investigators that he murdered Belk, but admitted to “acts amounting to rape.”

Authorities said there was no evidence that Belk and Taylor knew each other before their murders.

Belk's family founded the Vickie Belk Scholarship Foundation, which awards scholarships in her name.

WTOP's Jack Moore contributed to this story.

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