Serial killer tip leads to Block Island search
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The following appears courtesy of yesterday's Associated Press news
wire:
Serial killer tip leads to Block Island search
NEW SHOREHAM (AP)– Investigators searched Block Island on Thursday for
the
remains of two people convicted serial killer Hadden Clark said he
murdered.
Clark told authorities he killed the people and burned their
bodies in
the early 1980s. Investigators searched a beach on the island and also
went
through Clark’s mother’s house.
Investigators have searched the mother’s house before, and also an
E.Z.
Mini Storage lot in Warwick where Clark rented a 100-square-foot storage
locker
between 1988 and 1995. In April, authorities looked for murder victims
on
property Clark’s grandfather once owned and where Clark played as a
child in
Wellfleet, Mass.
Clark is serving a 60-year prison sentence in Maryland for the
murders of a
6-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman. He led police to the bodies of
both
victims.
In January, authorities found the remains of the girl, Michele Lee
Dorr,
who vanished in 1986. Police dogs from the Maryland and Rhode Island
state
police departments helped police find the grave in a suburban
Washington, D.C.
park.
---------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 6/17/00 online edition of The
WRC-TV,
local Washington, DC NBC-TV affiliate station web site:
Clark confesses to murders in R.I.
June 17 – The search for possible victims of convicted killer Hadden
Clark
has brought police to Rhode Island today.
INVESTIGATORS WENT to Block Island to search for the remains of
two
people Clark claims to have killed there nearly 20 years ago.
Crews searched around the killer’s mother’s home and at the
beach but
found nothing.
Clark is currently serving a 60-year prison sentence in Maryland for
the
murders of 6-year-old Michele Dorr and 23-year-old Laura Houghteling.
He led investigators to Massachusetts back in April to search for
more of
his victims, but that search also turned up nothing.
-----------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 6/17/00 online edition of The
Providence Journal newspaper:
6.17.2000
Search reveals nothing to back up murder claim
The police search areas on Block Island, but turn up no evidence to
corroborate claims by Hadden Clark, 47, that he killed two women there
in the
1980s.
By CHRIS POON
Journal Staff Writer
BLOCK ISLAND -- After a two-hour police and dog search of a beach and
barn,
investigators this week found no evidence to corroborate a convicted
murderer's
claims that he killed two women on the island in the 1980s, Police Chief
William A. McCombe said yesterday.
The state police from Rhode Island and Massachusetts were accompanied by
federal agents and Maryland police to the former summer home of Hadden
Clark,
47, who is currently serving a 60-year prison sentence in Maryland for
the
murders of a 6-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman, both of Maryland.
But after Thursday's search of a barn -- the same one police combed in
1995 and
found nothing connecting him to a murder -- and a beach on the island's
southern end, the police found nothing to verify Clark's story of
kidnapping
two women off the Block Island ferry and then killing them nearly two
decades
ago, McCombe said.
"We feel confident that there's no evidence at this point to support the
allegations he made several months ago," he said.
State Police would not say what, if anything, was seized from the
search,
saying the investigation was initiated by Maryland police.
Geoffrey Clark, Hadden Clark's younger brother who lives in Maryland,
gave the
police permission to search the family's island property off Old Town
Road. The
police and state police dogs also combed a beach, but McCombe declined
to say
what they were looking for in either place.
Because of Clark's two murder convictions and a timeline of his
whereabouts
that he has developed with Montgomery County Police in Rockville, Md.,
the
police continue to investigate the many allegations Clark has made about
murdering other people -- perhaps as many as 11 -- in Connecticut,
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, investigators say.
Rhode Island police have searched a storage locker in Warwick that Clark
rented
between 1988 and 1995, but found only personal belongings that were not
linked
to any murders. Five years ago, they also searched a Block Island barn
behind a
house where he and his now-deceased mother, Flavia Clark, once lived.
They
found 28 knives, but nothing connecting Clark to the disappearance of a
missing
Maryland girl. Clark was later convicted of killing 6-year-old Michele
Dorr.
-----------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 6/16/00 online edition of The
APBNews.com News Service, located at http://www.apbnews.com:
Killer May Be Lying About Other Victims
Cops Say Searches Are Fruitless
June 16, 2000
By Robert Anthony Phillips
NEW SHOREHAM, R.I. (APBnews.com) -- A "wacko" convicted killer who had
told
authorities he abducted and killed two people on Block Island is
probably just
making up the story to send police on a wild goose chase, police here
said.
Police Chief William A. McCombe said a search of a beach area and a home
earlier this week turned up no remains of the two people convicted
killer
Hadden Clark said he abducted and killed on the resort island in the
1980s.
"This guy's a wacko," McCombe said today. "He says a ton of stuff, but
the
problem is that you can't discredit all of it so you have to make sure."
Clark, serving a life sentence for the murder of a Montgomery County
woman and
a 6-year-old child, has been taken out of prison periodically to help
police
search for the graves of his alleged victims.
Dressed in women's clothing
Montgomery County Police Officer Derek Baliles said that investigators
even
allowed Hadden to dress in women's clothing to make him happy and try to
persuade him to give them clues to other possible murders or graves.
"He likes to wear women's clothes," Baliles said. "If wearing a woman's
wig
makes him happy and he can help us, I'll get him the wig myself."
Clark did not accompany investigators to Block Island for the search,
McCombe
said.
Clark's brother still lives in the family home on the island, McCombe
said.
During a search Thursday, dogs were used to search for bodies along a
beach
area and also some personal belongings of Clark's were searched at the
family
home, McCombe said.
Nothing was found. "We've looked through these areas before and found
nothing.
This was nothing new," McCombe said.
No missing person reports
Following his arrest and conviction for the Montgomery County murders,
Baliles
said that other police agencies with missing persons cases have
contacted his
department to determine if Clark is linked to their unsolved cases.
So far, investigators have found nothing, Baliles said.
McCombe said that despite Clark's claims he abducted and murdered two
people on
Block Island in the 1980s, his department had no missing person reports
during
the time he indicated he committed the crimes.
Clark received 30 years in prison for the 1986 murder of Michele Dorr,
6, in
Silver Spring, Md. The girl was playing outside when Clark came upon her
and
slashed her to death. Clark was also convicted of the 1993 murder of a
23-year-old Bethesda woman and sentenced to 30 years.
Clark buried both bodies and later led police to their graves,
authorities
said.
Robert Anthony Phillips is an APBnews.com staff writer
(robert....@apbnews.com).