Hello! My name is Trenton West, and this is my website. On this website I’ll be discussing two Virgina cold cases and how the advancements in DNA technology have allowed for them to be re-opened and solved.
Focus of This Website
DNA technology has many different uses, I’ll be focusing on how it is used in law enforcement and cold cases.
About Me
Hello, my name is Trenton West and I’m currently a student at the University of Mary Washington (UMW). I was born on September 17, 2001, in Manassas, Virgina. My parents were young when I was born so my sister and I spent most of our childhood in Fairfax, Virginia at our grandmother’s house. I graduated from Osbourn High School in Manasses, Virginia and began pursuing my general studies associates degree at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). I soon decided that I wanted to major in engineering. I looked into UMW because my family was about to move to Stafford County, Virgina, but UMW doesn’t have an engineering program. I decided to transfer to George Mason University. After a couple semesters I decided that engineering wasn’t for me, so I switched my major to business administration and looked back into UMW. After graduating from NOVA with my general studies associates degree, I transferred to UMW and began pursuing my business degree.
I currently work with my father doing landscaping, our company is called “DTW Lawn service”. I’ve been working with him for 6 years now. I also work with my uncle when he needs me. I am the oldest of 4. I am 23, my sister is 20, my brother is 8, and my youngest sister is 6. Some of my hobbies are sports, anime/manga, and video games. Some of the sports I’ve done are football, basketball, baseball, boxing, soccer, and I currently box and do Muay Thai. Muay Thai is a combat sport, also known as “the art of eight limbs,” which originated in Thailand. It is similar to traditional kickboxing, but in Muay Thai you can use your fists, legs, elbows, knees, and clinch. In kickboxing you can only punch or kick. My favorite anime is one piece at the moment and my favorite video game series of all time is God of War. I also love animals; I like to visit zoos with my family and see all the different animals.
The reason why I picked this topic for my website is because the advancement of DNA technology has helped my family in many ways. My mom discovered that she had a half-brother through Ancestry. com. After the results were confirmed, we flew to Texas to meet him and his family and had a great time. We met all of our new cousins. My grandfather met his other new grandchildren and even learned that he was a great grandfather. We had a great time with them. Amy Baker, one of the victims in these two cold cases that were recently solved was my cousin on my mom’s side. I never met Amy because she was murdered before I was born, but I would hear my mother talk about her to our older family members from time to time. She couldn’t believe it when she saw the news that he had been caught.
Jacqueline Lard
On November 14, 1986, Jacqueline Lard went missing. She was last seen leaving her place of work “Mount Vernon Realty” on Garrisonville road in Stafford County. The next morning, on November 15, 1986, employees of the businesses nearby discovered the crime scene. The crime scene was said to have “indicated a horrific struggle.”1 Forensic evidence was collected from the scene, but the case unfortunately went cold. Her body was found on November 16, 1986, two days after she initially went missing. Her body was found by two children in a wooded area of railroad avenue in Woodbridge underneath of some discarded carpet. She had been beaten, raped, and strangled. Forensic evidence was acquired but the case still went cold. She was 40 years old when she was murdered.
After the advancement of forensic technology and the use of investigative genetic genealogy, a breakthrough was made. Police were able to link Jacqueline and Amy’s cases.
- Amanda Jackson and Chris Boyette, “Man Arrested After DNA Helps Crack Cold Case Killing Nearly 40 Years Later as Police Link Him to Another Case,” Lexisnexis, March 9, 2024, Man arrested after DNA helps crack cold case killing nearly 40 years later as police link him to another case. ↩︎
Amy Baker
A few years after Jacquline Lard’s murder, Amy Baker went missing. On March 29, 1989, at around 8:30 pm, Amy went missing on her way back home in Stafford County while visiting family in falls church. At around 9:55 pm, her car was found on I-95 on the side of the road by a Virgina State trooper. The next morning, the state trooper returned and found her car in the same spot it was in the night before and had it towed. After hearing the news, Amy’s family went out and searched around the area where her car was found. Her family found her body in a wooded area near I-95 in Springfield under an old mattress. Amy had been beaten, raped, and then strangled. She was 18 years old when she was murdered. After investigation, detectives determined that her car had run out of gas on her way back home from her relative’s house. After pulling her car over, she went to the nearest gas station where she then encountered the suspect who attacked her.
Forensic evidence was acquired in Amy’s case as well, but all of the obtained evidence didn’t provide enough leads. The case eventually went cold. Fortunately though, a breakthrough was made in 2021. The cold case detectives in Fairfax County submitted the forensic evidence from Amy’s case to DNA Labs International. This led to the development of a DNA profile. through the help of Parabon NanoLabs, The DNA profile linked the suspect from Amy’s case to Jacqueline’s case. In December of 2023, a family name for the suspect was identified and a search warrant for DNA was obtained. Two months later, Elroy Neal Harrison was arrested. He was charged with first-degree murder, abduction with intent to defile, aggravated malicious wounding, and breaking and entering with the intent to commit murder.
