Second suspect announced in 1970s cold case murder of Maryland teenager Pamela Lynn Conyers

BALTIMORE --  Anne Arundel County Police announced a second suspect in the cold case murder of 16-year-old Pamela Lynn Conyers over 50 years ago. 

Donald Willard, a man who died in 2010 at 74, was involved in the teen's death, police said Monday. Last year, police identified Forrest Clyde Williams III, a man who died in 2018 in Virginia, as the first suspect in the case.

If the suspects were alive today, police said, they would be charged with murder. 

On October 16, 1970, Conyers attended a bonfire and pep rally at Glen Burnie High School before driving to Harundale Mall, the last place she was seen alive, according to police cold case files. 

Her body was found four days later, a short distance from her abandoned vehicle, in a wooded median of Maryland Route 177 near Millersville. Her cause of death was trauma to the upper body and the manner was ruled a homicide, police said. 

The area where Conyers' body was found was under construction at the time and is now Route 100 near the Waterford Road/Route 648 overpass.

"While we do hope it provides a sense of closure for all who knew and loved her, we know that they still search for answers to what happened to Pam on that Friday, October 16, 1970," Anne Arundel County Police Chief Amal Awad said.

Technology provides a breakthrough

FBI investigators identified the suspects using investigative genetic genealogy, the science of using genetic testing to generate leads. The method didn't exist at the time of the murder. 

"Law enforcement utilized forensic genealogy, the DNA from Willard and Williams were found inside the vehicle, we can tell you they were located on cigarettes inside the vehicle and Williams had latent prints outside the vehicle," Justin Mulcahy, from Anne Arundel County Police, said.  

Investigators don't believe either Willard or Williams ever had contact with Conyers before her murder.

Williams moved to Anne Arundel County from Virginia in his teen years but went to Northeast High School in Pasadena. He was described as being a "drifter" and 

Willard was described as a handyman who worked for a contracting company based in White Marsh. The company worked at the construction site where Conyers' body was found, police said. 

"Pamela's body was discovered in some pine thicket about 20 to 30 yards from where that vehicle had been discovered," Mulcahy said.

The search for answers continues 

Police asked residents to review photos provided of the suspects to determine if they had ever interacted with them. Both men were hunters and were known to frequent The Mountain Bar on Mountain Road in Pasadena. 

"We dont have any indication that they knew Pam prior to her death, we're not sure that they knew each other, there seems to be a common link at this bar they may have frequented, so I think that's a key point," Mulcahy said. 

An investigation is ongoing, and police ask any residents who may have worked with them, hunted with them or talked with them to report it.  

"There is no information that's too small," a police spokesperson said. "It's all significant to us." 

Anyone with information on the murder is asked to call AACPD tip line at 410-222-4731.