STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. — Nearly 40 years after the brutal murder of Jaqueline Lard in Stafford County, a person accused of killing her has been arrested. Additionally, DNA evidence has further linked the same suspect to another murder of a Stafford County resident that happened just three years later in 1989.
Elroy Harrison, 65, was indicted by a Stafford County Grand Jury on Monday 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. He was arrested at his Stafford County home on Monday and placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond.
Police say the events of Lard's murder are as follows:
On Nov. 14, 1986, Lard, 40, was working at Mount Vernon Realty in the 300 block of Garrisonville Road. She was last seen as the business was closing at 9 p.m. However, Lard never made it home that night.
Police say the next morning, employees of other businesses in the area were preparing to open for the day and discovered a crime scene at the realty office which indicated a horrific struggle. Lard and her car were both missing.
The day after discovering the crime scene at the realty office, police say two kids playing in a wooded area near Railroad Avenue in Woodbridge discovered a body buried beneath a pile of discarded carpet. Stafford detectives joined Prince William detectives and the FBI to process the scene and identified the deceased as Jacqueline Lard. The evidence collected would ultimately provide the suspect’s identification 37 years later.
Lard's missing car was found abandoned in Fairfax County on Dec. 18, 1986, leading to the recovery of additional evidence.
The FBI then 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 found, 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 led to nothing. All leads were eventually exhausted and the investigation moved to a Cold Case status.
One detective refused to give up. Detective D.K. Wood explored a new technology, forensic investigative genetic genealogy to help identify the killer. He worked with Parabon NanoLabs, a company providing DNA phenotyping, and 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 to solve the case.
On Dec. 14, 2023, a family name for the suspect was identified. Detectives followed up and obtained a search warrant for DNA from Stafford County resident Elroy Harrison.
In February, the Department of Forensic Science reported the DNA was a match. After nearly four decades, the identity of the murder suspect had been revealed.
On Monday, March 4, Harrison was indicted by a jury. He is currently being held without bond.
Cold Case detectives from the Fairfax County Police Department are working alongside the Fairfax County Office of the Commonwealth Attorney to seek charges against Harrison for the murder of Amy Baker.
Baker was killed in 1986, she was only 18 years old. According to Fairfax County Police, On March 29, 1986, she was visiting family and left to commute back to her home in Stafford Co. but never made it home. Her empty car was found that same night and towed the next day. Baker was reported missing. Her family found her dead while searching a wooded area near where her car was found.
Detectives believe Baker may have run out of gas and was walking to a nearby gas station when she encountered her killer, who strangled her.
Editor's note: The above story has been updated to correct Jacqueline Lard's age. The Stafford County Sheriff's Office incorrectly gave her age as 32.
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