DNA links Tenn. inmate to 1999 Charleston slaying

Charleston police Sgt. Bobby Eggleton stands on the side of U.S. 119 just outside Walton, Roane County, where police found Terry Clark's body in 1999. A DNA match through a national database has led police to her possible killer, more than 13 years after the crime was committed.

WALTON,W.Va. -- A few snowflakes rode on the breeze as Sgt. Bobby Eggleton walked across a grassy spot beside U.S. 119 south of Spencer. It was quiet, except for the hum of an occasional passing car.

Thirteen years earlier, the lifeless body of a woman lay sprawled in this grass -- naked and with the telltale marks of strangulation ringing her neck.

Eggleton stopped in the center of the wide spot by the road: "This is where we found her," the Charleston police officer said.

The woman's name was Terry Clark. She was 41 and lived in Charleston. Her killing went unsolved, and the trail turned cold.

In spring 2000, Charleston Lt. S.A. Cooper, a detective at the time, said, "We are confident -- because of the evidence we have in place -- that we may be one tip away from solving this crime."

But that tip never came . . . until now.

'She was someone we took sympathy on '

It was Memorial Day weekend 1999 when city detectives got an early morning call that said the body that had been found in Roane County was Clark, a Charleston resident.

Clark's neck was covered in marks from being strangled with a cord, and there was a wound on the back of her head from a blunt object.

Follow this link:
DNA links Tenn. inmate to 1999 Charleston slaying