Skip to main content

Md. inmate serving life for 3 murders charged in 4th

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) _ A man serving life in prison in the murder of three women in the 1980s has been charged with a fourth killing.

The Howard County Police Department said Thursday that 59-year-old Vernon Lee Clark has been indicted by a grand jury in the rape and murder of 81-year-old Iva Watson in Ellicott City in 1984.

Watson was found under pine trees across the street from her home. She had been reported missing the day before.

Clark was previously convicted in the sexual assault and shooting death of 23-year-old Kathleen Gouldin in her Elkridge apartment in 1989. He’s also been convicted in the 1981 beating death of 68-year-old Evelyn Dieterich of Catonsville and the 1980 stabbing death of 70-year-old Rebecca Davis of Elkridge.

Clark is imprisoned in Hagerstown.

Police have previously said Clark might be linked to two other killings in Elkridge in 1979.

No attorney is listed for Clark in court records.

Ellicott City flood alert sounds, Howard County works to reduce chronic devastation

For the first time, early warning sirens sounded in historic Ellicott City on Monday evening, triggered by a flash flood warning from the National Weather Service. Despite almost two inches of rain in a one hour period, no serious damage was sustained in Maryland's flood-prone tourist destination, which suffered devastating floods in 2016 and 2018.
Read Next Story