WVIT-TV January 17, 2000
WELLFLEET, Mass., Jan. 17 - A twice-convicted murderer who led authorities on a search for bodies on Cape Cod, and who spent part of the weekend in Connecticut talking to state and local police, has reportedly told investigators he tortured and ate some of his victims. Authorities said they have not corroborated Hadden Clark’s claims of cannibalism, which The Cape Cod Times reported Monday he had made during police interviews in Maryland and on Cape Cod. The paper cited unidentified sources. The paper also reported that the 47-year-old Clark spent Sunday in Connecticut, where investigators hoped he would provide details about women killed there sometime in the 1980s. State police officials confirmed the report Monday, but declined to discuss with NBC 30 any details of their discussions with the convicted killer.
Clark is serving two back-to-back 30-year sentences in Maryland for the murders of 6-year-old Michelle Dorr, who disappeared in 1986, and 23-year-old Laura Houghteling, who disappeared in 1992. In both cases, Clark helped police find the victims’ remains. 6-year-old Michelle Dorr's body was found nearly two weeks ago, 14 years after Clark killed her and buried her body in a Maryland park.
Authorities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maryland aren’t the only ones who have an interest in what Clarks says. Investigators from Rhode Island, Vermont and Pennsylvania also want to talk with Clark about as many as 11 other murders, the paper reported. All of the victims in those cases were female. Clark said he consumed his victims because he “wanted to become the women and girls he killed,” a law enforcement official who interviewed him told the newspaper. He reportedly asked Massachusetts investigators to buy him women’s clothing, and wore some of it during the search of property once owned by his grandfather in Wellfleet.
Clark left Cape Cod Saturday after a spending the morning pointing out potential grave sites in and around the 7.4-acre parcel of land, the paper reported. He has drawn maps of potential burial sites on Cape Cod, according to police.
“Clark definitely provided us with information that compels us to get back to certain locations in Wellfleet as soon as possible,” State police Sgt. James Plath said.
Clark told Massachusetts police that he picked up two women in Vermont in the 1980s and buried their bodies on the Cape, the newspaper said. Massachusetts police have been concentrating their search on a parcel of land in Wellfleet formerly owned by Clark's grandfather.
While on Cape Cod, Clark was shown photographs of several women and girls and asked if he knew anything about their disappearances. Included was a picture of 9-year-old Sarah Pryor, who vanished while walking near her Wayland, Massachusetts, home in 1985. A portion of her skull was found 2 miles away in 1995. An investigator said Clark did not select Pryor’s picture, the paper reported.
On December 15th, Maryland and Massachusetts police searched the Wellfleet property on South Pamet Road with a police dog. They did not find any human remains, but did turn up a bucket containing women’s jewelry, including some that belonged to Houghteling, the paper reported.
The Barnstable district attorney’s office wasn’t open on Monday due to the holiday. Wellfleet police said Clark had left Wellfleet. A Montgomery County, Maryland. police spokeswoman said she had no word on Clark’s whereabouts on Monday.
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