Nearly 53 years after a young mother was found stabbed in a Prince William County forest, Virginia State Police say they finally know who killed her: the husband she had just left behind in Washington, D.C.
Investigators announced Friday that new forensic work and a fresh look at old witness accounts point to Clarence Edward Washington Jr. as the person who killed 33-year-old Shirley Leona Washington and left her body in Conway-Robinson Memorial State Forest on Dec. 8, 1973. She had been stabbed multiple times. Police say the finding closes a cold case that has haunted her family for more than five decades.
According to the Virginia State Police cold-case database, the killing is logged as Case 08-17736. The entry lists Shirley Washington as the Dec. 8, 1973 victim discovered in Conway-Robinson Memorial State Forest, notes that she suffered eight stab wounds and records her age as 33. The case status is listed as "Closed - Exception, Death of Offender" and the page provides a Fairfax Bureau of Criminal Investigation contact for anyone with additional information.
Special agents say they tied the case to Shirley Washington's husband, Clarence Washington, who died in 2013 at age 68, by aligning threats he made, his movements at the time and forensic indicators from the file. As reported by WTVR, investigators concluded that because he is deceased and so much time has passed, there is no way to bring the case to court. Commonwealth's Attorney Amy Ashworth said she and her chief deputy are "convinced" after reviewing the evidence that Clarence Washington committed the murder.
Before she was killed, investigators say, Shirley Washington had moved out of the home she shared with her husband and was staying with her mother in Washington, D.C., after he was accused of assaulting a minor. Daily Voice reports that Clarence Washington threatened his wife after she left and had a documented history of stabbing-related charges, including a 1964 attack on an ex-wife and additional assaults in the 1980s. Detectives say that record, paired with updated forensic analysis, helped narrow the old file to a single suspect.
How investigators finally connected the dots
Virginia State Police officials say the case turned when analysts went back through the file and sought help from the Virginia Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, which provided forensic support that pushed the investigation forward. In a statement cited by Daily Voice, Attorney General Jay Jones said the initiative "helped bring closure to this decades-long investigation" and called it a "crucial tool" for detectives. Investigators then overlaid that new scientific work on top of witness statements from the original probe to build the circumstantial chain pointing to the late husband.
Why there will never be a trial
Prosecutors say that if Clarence Washington were still alive, they likely would have moved forward with charges. But in practical terms, the case is now untriable. As WTVR reported, Ashworth explained that physical evidence has deteriorated and key eyewitnesses have died, leaving prosecutors without the support they would need to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. With those limits, authorities opted to publicly name the suspect while formally closing the file.
State police say that closure is less about paperwork and more about giving the Washington family long-sought answers, even if the justice system cannot catch up. The cold-case entry lists the status as "Closed - Exception, Death of Offender" and points to the Fairfax BCI office for anyone who still wants to come forward, per the Virginia State Police. Investigators say that after more than fifty years, being able to say who was responsible is its own kind of progress, even if a jury will never hear the case.
