LA PLATA, Md. — Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County, announced that on Friday, August 23, 2024, Charles County Circuit Court Judge H. James West sentenced Andre Taylor, 63, to Life in prison for the First-Degree Murder of Vickie Lynn Belk. Taylor was convicted of the aforementioned charge by a Charles County jury on July 18, 2024.
On August 28, 1979, Belk’s then-boyfriend reported her missing to the Prince George’s County Police Department after last seeing her the day before at their shared place of work in Washington, D.C. Belk had not returned to her apartment in Suitland, MD.
On August 29, 1979, a local teenager called 911 after noticing a body on the ground in a wooded location in the area of Metropolitan Church Road and Route 227. Officers with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) responded to the location and discovered the body of a woman with a gunshot wound to the right side of her head and undressed from the waist down.
On August 30, 1979, Belk was positively identified as the woman who was discovered in the wooded area. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore ruled her cause of death to be from the gunshot wound.
Investigators recovered, processed, and maintained evidence during the initial investigation; however, the case went cold. In the following years, several detectives worked on the case. In more recent years, Detective Sergeant John Elliott of the CCSO’s Criminal Investigations Division continued the investigation and worked with various agencies to pursue leads.
As forensic technology advanced, the evidence of the murder continued to be re-examined. In 2022, the CCSO’s Forensic Science Section re-evaluated the evidence and submitted Belk’s clothing for testing with newer technology. A profile was developed and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national DNA database.
On November 1, 2022, Noelle Gehrman, the Deputy Director of the CCSO’s Forensic Science Section, was notified of a DNA match between the profiles developed from the evidence obtained from the Belk case and Taylor.
While investigating Taylor’s background, detectives learned that he was arrested for violent crimes that occurred in Washington, D.C. It was also discovered that Taylor lived at a residence in Bryan’s Road around the time of the murder. The address was less than 4 miles from where Belk’s body was discovered. Taylor also had connections to the area of Washington, D.C. where it is believed that Belk was abducted.
Detectives began trying to locate Taylor, but he had no known address since 2019. In collaboration with the United States Homeland Security Investigations, DC Metropolitan Police Department Homicide, and the U.S. Secret Service Baltimore Field Office, detectives of the CCSO were able to locate Taylor in Washington, D.C., where he resided.
On June 22, 2023, Taylor was arrested by detectives assigned to the CCSO’s Criminal Investigations Division, CCSO’s Warrant/Fugitive Unit, the United States Marshals Service, Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, and members of the Metropolitan Police Department.
In an interview with detectives, Taylor admitted to actions that amounted to the rape of Belk, but he denied having any part in her murder.
At the time of the murder, Belk was 28 years old, and Taylor was 18 years old. There is no evidence that indicates that Belk and Taylor knew each other before the incident.
During sentencing, Assistant State’s Attorney John Stackhouse told the judge that the incident caused “generational trauma because it went on for 45 years. [Belk’s] son grew up without a mother. Her parents had to bury their daughter. Her parents had to lay on their deathbed not knowing who killed their daughter. Her grandchildren never got a chance to meet their grandmother. – Yet all throughout this case, I’ve never seen a family with so much grit, determination, and grace.” He furthered that “when you victimize someone like this and then murder them, it really doesn’t get more horrific than that.” Echoing the word of Belk’s son, he asked the judge to “use the power you have to get justice, and justice in this case is Life.”
Before sentencing Taylor to Life in prison, the Honorable Judge West said that Belk “had a presence or spirit that has endured in ways that I’ve honestly never seen before,” furthering that the “victim leaves a tremendous legacy, and the family carries on a tremendous legacy.” He also stated that “the crime is a horrific loss of a life – the violence was extreme. The amount of fear and terror that preceded the violence doesn’t exist in most cases. [The incident was] so heinous, I can’t think of a lesser sentence that would be appropriate.”
