CITIZEN JOURNALISM:
It has been 30 years since the murder of Vickie Lynn Belk, but family and friends hold on to memories of her and continue the effort to find out who took her precious life away from them.
August is the peak of the summer season, the time to vacation at the beach, host family and friends for barbecues and attend joyous weddings. For the Belk family, however, it is one of the hardest months of the year.
For them, August 1979 began as a joyful, happy time, too, with the wedding of Vickie Belk’s younger sister, Judy, for which Vickie was the maid of honor and organizer. Two weeks later, the Belk family’s world was turned upside down with Vickie’s disappearance and murder in Charles County, Md.
At the time of her death, 28-year-old Ms. Belk was a management analyst at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington and was heavily involved in the historic Alexandria community known as Seminary because of its proximity to the Virginia Theological Seminary and with Oakland Baptist Church in Alexandria, which was co-founded by her great-great grandfather Wesley Casey. Her funeral service was held in that church, which her sister Kay Belk-Dailey said had brought her joy as a Sunday school teacher and church clerk.
Three decades later, Ms. Belk’s murder remains unsolved. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office is offering a reward for anyone with information about this cold case.
To commemorate her life and the anniversary of her death, the Belk family is hosting an outdoor candlelight vigil Wednesday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the 1000 block of Woods Place in Alexandria. They hope it will remind those who knew Ms. Belk and knew of her life to urge anyone who may know what happened to her to come forward. The vigil will consist of a small program of songs and prayer and be a time when people can share their memories and, Mrs. Belk-Dailey said, reflect on the great things Ms. Belk accomplished.
“It is important for us to not only celebrate her life, and she had a great life, but to let the public know that the case is still unsolved,” she said.
Born March 20, 1951, Ms. Belk was a role model, according to her sister, and the oldest of six Belk children, including five girls - Aprile, Grenada, Judy, and Kay - and one boy, Lonnie Jr., also known as “Rickie.” In 1960, she, her sister Judy and a few other neighborhood children were the first black students to enter Minnie Howard Elementary School in Alexandria after her parents joined a successful civil rights lawsuit that forced Virginia to comply with the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation ruling.
“[Vickie] was very thoughtful and giving, and we looked up to her,” Mrs. Belk-Dailey said.
Because of the violence Ms. Belk experienced, many of her siblings and her only child have devoted their lives to public service. Her son, Lamont Belk, graduated from Morehouse College and George Mason University School of Law. He is an assistant district attorney in DeKalb County, Ga. Mrs. Belk-Dailey retired as a sergeant from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office in California, and Lonnie Belk is a lieutenant in the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department.
Detective Kevin Keelan in the Charles County Sheriff Office’s cold case unit is handling the case, and the family hopes that bringing renewed light will bring new clues. A $1,000 reward will be given to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest or indictment of the responsible parties involved in this case.
“The hope is that with the airing of the story, maybe it will generate tips,” said Diane Richardson, public information officer for the sheriff’s office.
Ms. Belk was last seen Aug. 27, 1979. She left work to run errands but never returned.
“We were frantic about what was going on - this was unusual for Vickie not to call or check in on her son,” Mrs. Belk-Daily explained.
Impatiently waiting for Ms. Belk to return became unbearable. The family was not able to file a missing-persons report for two long days because Ms. Belk was an adult. There was nothing more to do but wait and hope for the best. As time passed, however, they became more convinced something was wrong, she said.
On Aug. 29, 1979, Ms. Belk’s parents, Lonnie and Maydell Belk, received a phone call from the Charles County Sheriff’s Office that a body had been found. “At the time, my parents just assumed she was hurt,” Mrs. Belk-Dailey said, and were excited and optimistic as they arrived at the sheriff’s office, only to be told that their oldest daughter had been raped, murdered and thrown on the side of the road.
I’m never going to forget my mom was crying uncontrollably and saying, ’He just threw Vickie in the woods like a dog,’” said Mrs. Belk-Dailey, who added that she remembers as if it were yesterday.
“That night it was just chaotic, the grief was just so overwhelming. For [Vickie] to die in such a violent way was more painful for us as a family. We just couldn’t believe it.”
Ms. Belk’s devoted service and memory still live on at Oakland Baptist Church, helping young church members fulfill their dreams. Each year, young scholars going on to college are awarded a scholarship in her honor from the Vickie Belk Scholarship Fund, begun by the late Rev. A.R. Preston shortly after Ms. Belk’s death. More than 80 students have received scholarships so far. Through corporate and private donations and an annual community dinner fundraiser, the fund continues to accumulate thousands of dollars.
The grief is “like a black hole; it never goes away … for us now as a family, our energy is focused on keeping her case open and in the public’s eye,” Mrs. Belk-Dailey said.
Family and friends hope Ms. Belk’s killer is still alive and will be identified as a result of the exposure and hard work the case is receiving.
• Dominique Kelly is a freelance writer living in Prince George’s County.
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