Washington man sentenced to life in prison after DNA evidence links him to unsolved 1979 murder

LA PLATA, Maryland (7News) — Andre Taylor, 63, was sentenced to life in prison for the premeditated murder of Vickie Lynn Belk, Charles County District Attorney Tony Covington announced Friday.

This brings a murder from 1979, which remained unsolved for years, to a final conclusion.

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On July 18, a Charles County jury found Taylor guilty in the recently reopened case.

Belk was first reported missing to Prince George's County police on August 28, 1979, by Belk's then-boyfriend, as she never returned to her Suitland apartment. She was last seen the day before at their shared workplace in Washington, DC.

The next day, a teenager called 911 when he found a body on the ground in a wooded area between Metropolitan Church Road and Route 227.

Belk was found naked from the waist down with a gunshot wound to the right side of her head.

Since there were no leads, the case eventually stalled until Detective Sergeant John Elliott of the CCSO's Criminal Investigations Division reopened the investigation.

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His search was aided by new forensic technology. In 2022, the CCSO's Forensics Division re-evaluated the evidence and submitted Belk's clothing for examination using newer technology. A few months later, investigators became aware of a DNA match that pointed to Taylor.

Taylor has had no known address since 2019. However, investigators from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the DC Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Unit, and the U.S. Secret Service's Baltimore Field Office, as well as CCSO investigators, were able to track down Taylor in Washington, DC.

Taylor admitted to investigators that he raped Belk but denied murdering her.

When the crime occurred, Belk was 28 years old and Taylor was 18. There is no evidence that Belk and Taylor knew each other before the incident.

Assistant District Attorney John Stackhouse said the incident “caused generational trauma because it lasted 45 years.” [Belk’s] Son grew up without a mother. Her parents had to bury their daughter. Her parents were on their deathbed and didn't know who killed their daughter. Their grandchildren never had the chance to meet their grandmother. – And yet, in this whole case, I have never seen a family with so much courage, determination and grace. When you victimize someone like that and then murder them, it really doesn't get any more cruel than that.”

“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 nonexistent in most cases,” said Charles County District Court Judge H. James West.[The incident was] so heinous, I can't think of any lesser punishment that would be appropriate.”