Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Search turns to Clark's past Date: Sat, 14 Nov 92 16:22:11 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Search turns to Clark's past \BY Arlo Wagner, Pam Weisz and Matt Neufeld \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Montgomery County police said they will look to Hadden Irving Clark's past for clues in the murder of Laura Houghteling, after days of searching in New Jersey failed to turn up the body of the 23-year-old Bethesda woman. Investigators said they will resume a background check on Clark, 41, a schizophrenic who has been in jail for a week on charges of murdering Miss Houghteling. They said they lack many key details about Clark's family, including when and where Clark's father committed suicide. "There's still a lot we don't know," said Sgt. Harry Geehreng, a Montgomery County police spokesman. Authorities know that Hadden Clark is not the only member of his family who has been in trouble with the law. A brother, Bradfield Hadden Clark, 42, is serving 18 years to life in a California prison for the 1984 murder and dismemberment of a female co-worker. Bradfield Clark pleaded guilty in June 1985 to one count of second-degree murder and one count of mutilation of human remains in the July 23, 1984, death of Patricia Mak, 29, officials said. Bradfield Clark had invited Ms. Mak to his Los Gatos, Calif., apartment for dinner that night and apparently made a lewd remark that led her to slap him. He strangled her in the ensuing struggle, then took her body to a bathroom and chopped it up, said Lt. Steve Jackson, a spokesman for the medium-security Deuel Vocational Institute, where Bradfield Clark is serving his time. He put her body parts in plastic bags in an ice chest that he then put in his car. Two days later, he attempted suicide. When police asked him about Ms. Mak's disappearance, Lt. Jackson said, he told them, "She's in the trunk." The Clarks apparently come from affluence. Hadden Clark spent his childhood in the wealthy community of Warren Township, N.J., where police this week searched for Miss Houghteling's body. His mother and uncle live on Block Island, an upscale tourist community off the coast of Rhode Island. Old neighbors in Warren Township said they had hazy memories of the Clark family, which left town in 1962. "I always just thought they were kind of strange. He [Hadden Clark] angered easily, and you could always hear yelling," said Toni Munzipapa, 40, who went to elementary school with Clark. She said Clark had a "quick temper" and a speech problem. "He was a little slow in school," said Cris DeFillipo, who lived next door to the Clarks and still lives on their old street. "He was quite quiet. He was mischievous at times." But she said the news that he was a murder suspect was "devastating" because she never saw any unusual behavior. "I couldn't believe such a thing could happen," she said. Police from Montgomery County and five other jurisdictions used three bloodhounds to search Warren Township for bodies yesterday, but three hours and 15 minutes of searching the woods around the street where Clark lived yielded nothing. Yesterday's search was "probably our last shot" in Warren Township, Montgomery County Detective Ed Golian said. Police yesterday verified reports that a woman was seen leaving the Houghteling home in the 9900 block of Julliard Drive in Bethesda about 8:45 a.m. on the day Miss Houghteling was reported missing. But they downplayed the importance of the sighting, saying the hour was long after she was supposed to have left for work. "Somebody did say they saw a woman. They thought it was Laura Houghteling leaving but couldn't tell for sure," Sgt. Geehreng said. Investigators said it might have been Clark dressed like a woman. He dressed in women's clothes Feb. 19, 1989, when he broke into a church choir room to steal eight women's purses, according to court records. He was arrested an hour after women at Woodside United Methodist Church in the 8900 block of Georgia Avenue reported their purses stolen. When he was sentenced on two theft counts for that incident, Circuit Judge Irma S. Raker said Clark "has serious mental problems and is now addressing them." Records indicate Clark, 41, was discharged from the Navy on March 22, 1985, after psychiatrists decided that his "primary diagnosis was schizophrenia paranoid type." Clark was living with his brother Geoffrey in the 9100 block of Sudbury Road north of Takoma Park on Memorial Day in 1986 when neighbor Michele Lee Dorr, 6, disappeared. She has never been found. Hadden Clark was questioned at the time and eliminated as a suspect but is now considered a suspect in the case. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM