Vernon Lee Clark

Case record: Vernon Lee Clark

Status and sentencing

Vernon Lee Clark was sentenced to life in prison in 1991. He received another sentence of life imprisonment in February 2001.

Background

Vernon Lee Clark was described by longtime residents of old town Elkridge as having done yard work for elderly women around town and as having spent time at bars with a small circle of friends. Residents also recalled that he sometimes reeked of rotting flesh after getting off his job at an animal processing plant.

Clark worked for elderly women around town and was linked to multiple killings through DNA technology not available at the time of earlier investigations.

Clark had been her handyman to Rebecca H. "Dolly" Davis and was a suspect in multiple slayings in and around Elkridge between 1979 and 1989, including several elderly women.

His stepfather was Samuel Carter, 66, of Elkridge. Carter said Clark’s only stable job was at the Brauns Rendering Plant, where he loaded slaughtered animals into boilers for processing. Carter described Clark as generally a quiet person, though with a temper, and said: "The only time he got violent was against policemen. It would take four or five of them to handle him. He was small, but he was strong--a scrapper," and: "The only time he got violent was against policemen. He was small, but he was strong--a scrapper," according to court records and Carter’s remarks.

The offence

Murder of Rebecca H. "Dolly" Davis (1980)

Rebecca H. "Dolly" Davis, 70, of Elkridge, was murdered in the 1980 stabbing death of Davis. Her partially buried body was found in the back yard of her home in the 6100 block of Lawyers Hill Road on Feb. 22, 1980. The body bore multiple stab wounds and had been exposed to the elements for at least a week. Police said there was evidence of sexual assault.

Clark had done handy work for Davis. Police interviewed Clark at the time because he had been identified as an occasional employee of Davis’, but investigators lacked forensic evidence linking him to the scene.

As part of the plea agreement, charges of first-degree sex offense and perverted sex acts were dropped.

Murder of Kathleen Gouldin (1989)

Kathleen Gouldin, 23, was found shot to death in her apartment in Elkridge. She was the victim in a case in which Clark was convicted in 1991.

The victim had been shot and sexually molested in her apartment in Elkridge. Clark was connected to the case through fingerprints on a pizza box left outside Gouldin’s apartment, and later through DNA testing.

Clark was serving a life-plus-28-year sentence at the Maryland Department of Corrections Annex in Jessup.

Two officers who tried to question Clark regarding the Gouldin murder got into a wrestling match with him on Aug. 9, 1989. He bit one of the officers, drawing blood, according to court records. He was arrested a short time later and had not been out of custody since.

Murder of Evelyn Dietrich (1981)

Evelyn Dietrich, 68, of Catonsville, was beaten to death. Clark was charged with first-degree murder in the 1981 death of Dietrich.

Dietrich was killed on March 29, 1981. A passerby found Dietrich in bushes near her house. She had been bludgeoned and strangled. Clark was her gardener.

Clark was charged with first-degree murder and was charged with two counts of rape, two counts of attempted breaking and entering and attempted burglary in Dietrich’s death.

In September (as part of the investigation described), Clark was indicted in Baltimore County in the 1981 bludgeoning death of Dietrich.

DNA matches to Clark were described as having been made in the Davis and Dietrich slayings. Investigators said there was a 1-in-2.6-billion chance that the match was to someone other than Clark.

Murder of Iva Myrtle Watson (1984)

Iva Myrtle Watson, 61, of Ellicott City, was killed in 1984. Police said Watson was beaten to death in 1984.

According to police reports, Watson, 80, lived just down the road from the Faulkners. Her partially clothed body was found in a pine grove a block from her Ellicott City home five years after the Faulkner killings. The autopsy found the cause of death was "Multiple trauma" to the head.

Clark was described as a suspect in the slaying.

Murder of Carvel and Sarah Faulkner (1979)

Carvel Faulkner, 58, and Sarah Faulkner, 56, of Elkridge, were murdered in April 1979.

Carvel was found slumped in front of his bed with a bullet wound in his head. Sarah was found lying in a pool of blood on the bed, her throat slit, and her hands and feet bound. Investigators said there was no sign of forced entry at their home and $1,000 in open view was left undisturbed.

Clark worked off and on for the Faulkners' poultry feed and sanitation company.

DNA tests were being conducted on evidence from the 1979 slayings of Carvel Faulkner and Sarah Faulkner.

Investigators also stated that the cluster of six killings included four in Elkridge and two other killings just outside of town in Baltimore County.

Investigation

DNA evidence and advances

Authorities credited advances in DNA testing with their being able to close additional cases and reopen investigations of three other slayings.

Investigators said Clark was linked to crimes through DNA technology not available at the time of earlier investigations.

In 1991, DNA testing in Clark’s murder trial was described as the first in the county to use such technology, but investigators said the evidence was old and the tests were not sophisticated enough to make a match, causing the investigations of the five other killings to be stalled again.

Officials said DNA matches to Clark were made in the Davis and Dietrich slayings, and said there was a 1-in-2.6-billion chance that the match was to someone other than Clark.

Officials and police said a tip received during the summer had rekindled interest in the old cases, but the tip turned out to be erroneous.

Police said forensic investigators submitted DNA evidence to Cell Mark Diagnostics, the same lab that did tests for the O.J. Simpson criminal trial. Authorities said the lab did enhanced DNA testing that was now available, but they would not elaborate on what was found or say specifically what evidence they had.

Police resources and investigative efforts

For three years, Howard police had as many as 30 detectives working on the slayings. They traveled as far as Texas following leads. They employed a psychic. On the first anniversary of Davis’s murder, they staked out her grave site. Over the years, as leads disappeared, the investigations all but halted, and evidence from each case sat in boxes in the police department’s property room.

Paul Rappaport, Howard’s police chief from 1979 to 1987, said: "We put every resource we had into these cases. Expense was not an issue," and: "You don't forget cases like these."

Sgt. David Schickner of the Howard police’s violent crimes unit said: "As new procedures turn up, we see if we have the physical evidence that can be matched up by that procedure,"

Authorities’ view of linkage and serial killer theory

Officials said authorities always believed that the first four slayings were linked and that the killer lived in the Elkridge area.

Authorities believed Clark could be a serial killer, among the worst in the state’s history, and described him as the lone suspect in five other slayings.

Investigators described Clark as the prime suspect in five killings that occurred from 1979 to 1989 in or around the town of Elkridge, Md.

Arrest and custody

Clark was arrested a short time after the Aug. 9, 1989 incident involving officers related to the Gouldin murder. He had not been out of custody since.

Clark was described as being incarcerated in the Maryland House of Corrections following his 1991 conviction in the death of Kathleen Gouldin.

Trial and guilty plea

Plea agreement and convictions related to Davis

Vernon Lee Clark pleaded guilty Feb. 13 to first-degree murder in the 1980 stabbing death of Rebecca H. "Dolly" Davis, 70, of Elkridge.

Circuit Court Judge Lenore Gelfman sentenced Clark to a life term for that plea.

Clark already was serving a life sentence in the 1989 death of 23-year-old Kathleen Gouldin.

As part of the plea agreement in the Davis case, charges of first-degree sex offense and perverted sex acts were dropped.

Sentencing (February 2001)

In February 2001, Circuit Court Judge Lenore Gelfman sentenced Clark to a life term for murdering Davis.

Appeals and outcomes

The record described Clark as having been convicted in 1991 of first-degree murder, assault with the intent to rape, a weapons violation and perverted practices in connection with the death of Kathleen Gouldin, 23, who was shot to death.

Outcome and charging status in later proceedings

Two decades later, a county Circuit Court judge sentenced an Elkridge man to life in prison for murdering an elderly Elkridge woman more than two decades after the crime was committed.

Clark already was serving a life sentence for the 1989 death of Kathleen Gouldin. He also was charged with first-degree murder in the 1981 death of Evelyn Dietrich, and was a suspect in the 1984 beating death of Iva Myrtle Watson.

Clark also was described as being charged with the killing of two Howard County women: Rebecca Hemhill "Dolly" Davis, 70, from Lawyers Hill Road in Elkridge, and Evelyn Dietrich, 68, from Catonsville.

Police charged Clark with the killing of both Davis and Dietrich after a joint investigation by the Howard County and Baltimore County police departments.

Investigators were conducting DNA tests on evidence from the 1979 slayings of Carvel Faulkner, 58, and Sarah Faulkner, 56, of Elkridge.

Police described the cluster of six killings as having long passed into local lore, especially among older longtime residents who knew the victims.

Other details

Victims list and dates (as described)

Clark’s actual and suspected victims were listed as follows:

1. Kathleen Gouldin — Shot to death — July 4, 1989
2. Iva Myrtle Watson — Beaten to death — December 28, 1984
3. Evelyn Dietrich — Beaten to death — March 29, 1981
4. Rebecca H. Davis — Slashed to death — February 15, 1980
5. Carvel Faulkner — Shot to death — April 26, 1979
6. Sarah Faulkner — Slashed to death — April 26, 1979

“Mannequin murders” detail (Elkridge)

In 1980, after the first three killings, residents discovered a mannequin lashed up 20 feet up in a tree near where one of the bodies had been found. It was splattered with red paint and a knife was in its chest. The killings became known as the "mannequin murders."

Sam Merson, 70, a retired construction worker who was friends with four of the victims, said: "Everybody was kind of on edge. It was a time of turmoil,"

Dolly Davis’s background and last sighting

Dolly Davis was a portrait painter who lived alone in the affluent Lawyers Hill section of Elkridge and was active at Grace Episcopal Church. She was last seen leaving the Carter G. Woodson Elementary School in the Cherry Hill section of Baltimore, where she tutored.

She was found partially buried near her house, according to police reports, and she had been stabbed and sexually assaulted.

James Davis, Davis’s nephew, said: "You put these things out of your mind as the years go by," and: "It seemed awfully bizarre at the time."

Evelyn Dietrich discovery

A passerby found Evelyn Dietrich in bushes near her house; she had been bludgeoned and strangled.

Lawyers Hill Road and other locations

Rebecca H. "Dolly" Davis’s partially buried body was found in the back yard of her home in the 6100 block of Lawyers Hill Road in Elkridge.

Kathleen Gouldin’s apartment was in Elkridge.

Evelyn Dietrich was from Catonsville; Dietrich was found near her home on Devere Lane.

Carvel and Sarah Faulkner’s home was in Elkridge.

Iva Myrtle Watson lived in Ellicott City; her body was found in a pine grove a block from her Ellicott City home.

Authorities’ discussion of possible additional victims

Police believed Clark was responsible for at least two and possibly five more killings stretching back to the late 1970s. Police said Clark had known each of the women before the killing and had been a suspect in the slayings for years.

Steven Roscher, assistant state's attorney for Baltimore County, said: "He will seek the death penalty when Clark goes on trial next year."

Clark's lawyers, Franklin Draper and Katy O'Donnell, both assistant public defenders with the state's capital defense division, said they would have no comment on the new charges or the investigation.

Indictment and grand jury consideration

In September, Clark was indicted in Baltimore County in the 1981 bludgeoning death of Evelyn Dietrich.

In coming weeks, a Howard County grand jury was to consider evidence that Clark slashed to death a second of the five victims, Rebecca H. "Dolly" Davis, 70, of Elkridge, in 1980.

Jail/incarceration details

Clark was incarcerated in the Maryland House of Corrections following his 1991 conviction in the death of Kathleen Gouldin.

He was described as serving a life-plus-28-year sentence at the Maryland Department of Corrections Annex in Jessup.