Killer Confesses To MA Woman's 2002 Murder In MD

FAIRFAX, VA — Police in Virginia and Maryland say a man already serving a life sentence for murder has confessed to two additional killings, including the 2002 death of 19-year-old Jennifer Landry of Brockton.

Last week, a detective from the Cold Case Unit of the Prince George's County Police Department obtained an arrest warrant for Charles Helem in connection with the Landry homicide. On Wednesday, Fairfax County Police charged Helem in the 1987 slaying of Eige Sober-Adler of Kensington, Maryland.

Helem, who was indicted in both murders Tuesday, is currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder after he was convicted of killing 37-year-old Patricia Bentley in her Chantilly, Virginia, townhouse on April 6, 2002.

Helem's confession in Landry's slaying came as he talked to police in Virginia about the Sober-Adler homicide and told them he picked up Landry in Washington, D.C., authorities said. Her body was later found in Mount Rainier in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Helem told Fairfax investigators that he was driving a truck and that's how he had met Landry, police said.

"That's where he preyed upon his women that he would meet, and that's where he met her and that's the reason that we contacted the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit to help them check across the country to see if anything that met his MO," Prince George's County Police Chief Malik Aziz said at a news conference.

Helem sent letters to law enforcement in Prince George’s County in 2010 and 2017 saying he had information on the Landry and Sober-Adler cases, but he initially refused to speak to detectives, Aziz said. He finally agreed to an interview last year, leading to Tuesday's indictment.

Police are investigating the possibility that Helem may be linked to other cold cases in the region.

Helem's name had come up previously during the investigation into Sober-Adler's death. Sober-Adler's body was found on Sept. 9, 1987, in a field behind the Days Inn on Centreville Road in Herndon, Virginia, according to her profile on Fairfax County Police Department's Cold Case website. Her vehicle was later recovered by police on the Dulles Access Road.

"Thirty-five years later, we stand before the community to say we have an indictment," said Major Ed O'Carroll of Fairfax County Police Department's Major Crime's Unit.