Victim: Samantha Clarke, 19, missing from Orange County VA, Sept 2010 -- Link??

Posted: Aug 12, 2013 10:55 PM CST

Samantha Clarke's disappearance from Orange County has so much in common with Alexis Murphy's case, that Orange County investigators were in Nelson County Monday.
The common denominator in both cases is Randy Taylor.

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By Courteney Stuart | stuart@readthehook.com
Published online 10:04am Thursday Oct 25th, 2012
and in print issue #1143 dated Thursday Oct 25th, 2012

Every day brings fresh torment for Barbara Tinder.
"I keep expecting her to walk in the door," says the 37-year-old town of Orange resident, who has spent the last two years anguished over the disappearance of her teenaged daughter, Samantha Clarke, who was last seen in September 2010.

Randy Allen Taylor, 2012

Meanwhile, Samantha's disappearance has devastated another person's life. 47-year-old Randy Allen Taylor claims police have singled him out as a suspect in Samantha's disappearance, and have harassed him by planting evidence and illegally tracking his whereabouts with GPS technology, even though he's told them he hardly knew her.
"The case needs to be solved," says Taylor, "but the way they're going about it is ridiculous."

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Orange County Commonwealth's Attorney

Press Release
​

Samantha Ann Clarke went missing from the Town of Orange, Virginia, in the very late hours of September 13, 2010 or the very early hours of September 14, 2010. Her last words to her brother were "I'll be back." She never returned.

The Town of Orange Police Department is actively investigating her disappearance. While we join with the citizens of the Commonwealth in praying for the safe return of Alexis Murphy, both the Office of the Orange County Commonwealth's Attorney and the Town of Orange Police Department welcome the renewed public attention to Ms. Clarke's disappearance.

Town of Orange investigators are assisting in the Murphy investigation in an effort to coordinate efforts and share whatever information they have to which may be helpful. Orange County Commonwealth's Attorney Diana H. Wheeler stated, "As Randy Taylor is someone that Samantha spoke with immediately prior to her disappearance, he remains someone we are very interested in learning more about."

This is an active on-going investigation. While we are unable to give specific information, we assure the public that local law enforcement has not forgotten about Samantha. Attached are two photographs of Samantha. She is 5'4" and 145 lbs with brown hair and brown eyes.

Samantha has long hair, but usually wears it up. She has multiple tattoos, including a pink Playboy Bunny on her right arm, "Tigger" above her right ankle, "Lucky" above her left ankle and a design with two dolphins on her lower back. Samantha wears glasses. Her ears have multiple piercings including a "bar" on her right ear. Her right nostril, right eyebrow and tongue are pierced.

We urge anyone with any information to please come forward and contact the Town of Orange Police Department at (540) 672-1491 or Orange County CrimeSolvers at (540) 672-7200.

Samantha Clarke

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Posted: 08/13/2013 6:29 pm EDT | Updated: 08/13/2013 6:57 pm EDT
by David Lohr
The Huffington Post
According to Orange County commonwealth's attorney Diane Wheeler, Randy Taylor is the last person to have contact with Samantha Clarke, a 19-year-old who disappeared three years ago.
"The investigation is still continuing and he remains a person of interest to us," Wheeler told The Huffington Post.

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By: Jessica Cunnington - Email
Updated: Mon 8:35 PM, Aug 12, 2013
August 12, 2013
"You always want to look at those connections because you never know where your investigation will take you so law enforcement agencies do try to keep eachother in contact about developments like this so everyone can sort of look at their own case again," said Diana Wheeler, the Commonwealth's Attorney in Orange County.

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Orange County Commonwealth’s Attorney Diana Wheeler said Thursday that Randy Allen Taylor has always been a “person of interest” in the 2010 disappearance of 19-year-old Samantha Clarke. She said when she heard Taylor was charged in the Murphy case, her initial reaction was “I knew it.” Wheeler says she hopes the latest development provides a break in the Clarke case.

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astridxx said:

Coming up on ABC 13 News at 5, I am clearing up a rumor about the Samantha Clarke investigation and that GPS device that was planted on Taylor's car.

https://www.facebook.com/ParkerABC13

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Bsublime said:

Let us know if they say anything interesting. I am on a business trip and can't watch

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popsicle said:

http://www.wset.com/story/23222315/separating-fact-from-fiction-in-randy-taylors-past

Everything we already know.

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Just K said:

Long distance would be any phone number outside of the local area code. The mother had the cellphone so he was calling the home phone/landline.

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He asked the first young man for Samantha's number, and says he sent a text message to the cell phone number the man provided. (Those texts were received by Tinder, who had the phone at work, and didn't respond.) Taylor says he next tried the home number. Samantha answered.

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Just K said:

Long distance would be any phone number outside of the local area code. The mother had the cellphone so he was calling the home phone/landline.

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Deba said:

I believe the landline only had local calling. I think, but am not sure, that RAT had a cell phone because he had texted the cell phone which was in the mom's possession.

ETA: Here is the information concerning the text:



http://www.readthehook.com/108360/l...amily-mourns-suspect-claims-police-harassment

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MoxieThyme said:

long distance wouldn't necessarily be out of the area code or far away.... especially if she only had a local calling plan... I'll give an example... it takes me maybe 15 minutes to drive to my mom's house, but on the local calling plan it is considered non-local (even though we have the same area code) and therefore you either cant call it or you have to pay long distance fees to call it... it's one of the reasons we got rid of our land line and opted just to use our cell phones... which brings me to my other point/clarification... I bought my cell phone in Madison Heights, Va at the Walmart... but the phone number assigned to it is a Charlottesville number... so even though I live an hour away from Charlottesville, that's what I got... so if someone where I lived only had a local land line, they wouldn't be able to call me on my cell phone even if I was standing right next to them at the time... Maybe samantha couldnt call RAT's cell because it was considered long distance, and yet he could have been right outside her house.... also, I thought in another article it stated that Samantha was supposed to meet RAT that night to ride along on a car repo... I know I read that in an article, but I have no idea which one... anyway, all of this is just FYI and MOO

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Deba said:

You are correct on all counts.

I believe in the article I linked it says RAT's area code on his cell phone was different from Samantha's landline area code making it long distance but that doesn't mean RAT wasn't near her home. He could have been in a car outside.

I don't think it was the night Samantha disappeared the repo ride was to take place - it had taken place earlier and one of the young men she met in the bar asked her to come along - RAT was also among the group on the repo ride.

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