By Associated Press
Globe Staff
1/18/2000
ELLFLEET - A top Barnstable County prosecutor said yesterday that he was ''very skeptical'' about some of the claims made by a twice-convicted murderer who led authorities on a search for bodies on Cape Cod and has reportedy told police he tortured and ate some of his victims.
''I'm very skeptical about much of what was said'' by Hadden Clark, said Michael O'Keefe, the first assistant district attorney. ''We've listened to a lengthy interview of (Clark). We will evaluate and further investigate the information that was presented to us.''
O'Keefe, however, declined to comment on the allegation of cannibalism, which was reported in the Cape Cod Times yesterday.
Clark spent Sunday in Connecticut, where investigators hoped he would provide details about women killed there sometime in the 1980s, the paper reported. Clark, 47, is serving two consecutive 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.
Investigators from Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Vermont 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 paper.
Clark reportedly asked Massachusetts investigators to buy him women's clothing, and he wore some of it during the search of property once owned by his grandfather in Wellfleet.
Clark left Cape Cod Saturday after spending the morning pointing out potential grave sites in and around the 7.4-acre parcel of land, the newspaper 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 Sergeant 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.
While on Cape Cod, Clark was shown photographs of several women and girls and asked whether he knew anything about their disappearances. Included was a picture of 9-year-old Sarah Pryor, who vanished while walking near her Wayland 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 newspaper reported.
On Dec. 15, 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 newspaper reported.
Scott Allen of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
Comments