A Washington DC man has been convicted of first-degree murder and rape in a case that has gone unsolved for decades.

In 1979, Vickie Lynn Belk was abducted, sexually assaulted and shot to death. Belk, a 28-year-old mother, worked in D.C. and was a resident of Suitland, but her body was found miles away in the area of ​​Metropolitan Church Road and Route 227 in Charles County, the sheriff’s office said.

More than 40 years later, DNA evidence finally linked Andre Taylor to Belk’s murder, prosecutors said.

“Our community is a little bit safer today with this person behind bars,” the victim’s son, Lamont Belk, said when Taylor’s arrest was announced last year. Lamont Belk was just 7 when his mother was killed.

After a nine-day trial, the jury took just two hours on Thursday to deliver a guilty verdict.

Advances in DNA technology helped Charles County detectives find the suspect. News4’s Darcy Spencer reports.

“These cold cases are rarely solved. They are solved with a stubborn determination”

On August 28, 1979, Belk’s boyfriend reported her missing to the Prince George’s County police. He had not seen her since the day before, when they had been at work together in D.C. She had not returned to her apartment in Suitland.

According to investigators, Taylor, who was 18 at the time, abducted Belk as she walked to her car parked at RFK Stadium, then assaulted and killed her.

The next day, a teenager called police after finding a body on the ground in a wooded area in Charles County. The victim, who had been shot, was identified as Belk.

No suspect was identified at that time and the case was eventually closed.

But as forensic technology improved, investigators submitted Belk’s clothing for testing in 2022. Scientists developed a profile of her killer and entered it into a national DNA database, prosecutors said. Later that year, they learned of a DNA match between Belk and Taylor.

Detectives initially struggled to locate Taylor, whose address had been unknown since 2019. Multiple agencies worked together and eventually tracked him down in Washington, D.C., where he was arrested in June 2023.

Prosecutors said Taylor admitted during interviews with detectives that he “committed acts amounting to the rape of Belk, but he denied having anything to do with her murder.”

There was no evidence that Belk and Taylor knew each other before the crime.

During their investigation, detectives learned that Taylor had been arrested for violent crimes in the District and that he lived less than four miles from where Belk’s body was found around the time of the murder. Taylor also had connections to D.C., where detectives believe Belk was abducted.

If convicted in September, Taylor faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

“These cold cases are rarely solved. They are solved with dogged determination and talent,” District Attorney Tony Covington said in a press release. “I am so grateful to Charles County for bringing some closure to the Belk family after 45 years and justice to Vickie Lynn Belk.”

Judy Belk has said that she and her sister were involved in integrating a public school in Alexandria, Virginia. The family established the Vickie Belk Scholarship Foundation in her honor, which has supported more than 100 students in Alexandria.

“As horrible as Vickie’s death was, we chose to focus on how she lived,” Judy Belk said last year.