Little Michele Dorr Gravesite
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January 10, 2000
MD. GRAVESITE BECOMES A MEMORIAL
Visitors Leave Mementos Honoring Michele Dorr
By Fern Shen, Washington Post Staff Writer
Carl Dorr spent 13 1/2 years trying to imagine the spot where his
6-year-old daughter, Michele, lay buried. Now that the remains of his
child have been found, he is drawn to her 13 1/2-year resting place.
Yesterday, three days after Hadden Clark, the man convicted of Michele's
murder, let police to the wooded spot in Paint Branch Park where he had
buried the girl, Dorr visited the site twice.
We just wanted to see this place again--it's special," Dorr said.
Clark was convicted in October of killing Michele and sentenced to 30
years in prison. He is serving a 30-year sentence in the 1992 slaying
of Laura Houghteling, 23, of Bethesda. Clark, who pleaded guilty in the
Houghteling case, had let authorities to her grave.
But it wasn't until a fellow inmate asked Clark where he had buried
Michele that the long search for her body was set in motion. Since her
disappearance in May, 1986 from the back yard of her father's Silver
Spring [Md.] back yard, the burial site just off Route 29 south of Tech
Road had been marked only by a discarded mattress that Clark used to
cover the grave. After locating Michele's remains, police restored the
site to its undisturbed condition.
But now Clark's hiding place for Michele is outlined in sticks, placed
by one of the many people who have visited the site in the past three
days. A white plastic bag on one of the sticks looks like a makeshift
marker.
An in the rectangle, where someone has brushed away the carpet of fallen
oak leaves, a small memorial to the dark-haired dark-eyed youngster has
begun to take shape. There are a half-dozen bunches of flowers, a
ceramic angel, a crucifix, a stuffed bear and a Snoopy doll holding a
heart. There's also a little yellow book of poems and a signed card
that reads: "May God watch over you now. Rest in peace Michele."
"It's incredible what people have done," Margaret Dorr, Carl Dorr's
wife, said yesterday
It was a day for marvelling at people's generosity. The couple had just
come from the Hines-Rinaldi Funeral Home in Silver Spring, where they
made most of the arrangements for a funeral service for Michele on
Saturday. The funeral me has offered to donate all of its services.
Carl Dorr had planned to meet Michele's mother, his former wife, Dee-Dee
Appleby at the funeral home, where both had spent private time Saturday
with their daughter's remans,
But Appleby was too overwhelmed by the events of the past several days
to come to the funeral home, and so they made arrangements during
telephone consultation.
Dorr said that plans now call for the funeral home to open a 9 a.m.
Saturday so the many people who have lent support to the search for
Michele will be able to pay their respects. The service for which final
details have not been made, will be at 11 a.m. Police detectives
involved in the 13 1/2 search for his daughter will serve as
pall-bearers.
Then afterward, the funeral procession will go to that wooded place, not
far from the highway, where Michele had lain.
"We'll get out of the car, say a prayer and then move on," Carl Dorr
said.
Michele will be buried on a hill at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Prince
George's County near Dorr's father, grandparents and other relatives.
This week, Dorr said he plans to bury his mother's ashes near where
Michel will be interred.
--From the Washington Post 1/10/00
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