LYNN GORE

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) _ A convicted child molester was charged with the murder of a 9-year-old girl whose body was found in a shallow grave after the man’s brother alerted deputies to a suspicious excavation on their ranch. Terry D. Clark was arraigned on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping Wednesday, the same day the state Supreme Court upheld his 24-year prison sentence for the 1984 kidnapping and rape of a 6-year-old girl. He had been free on bond pending the decision. 

The body of 9-year-old Dena Lynn Gore of Artesia was unearthed Tuesday on the southeast New Mexico ranch where Clark lives and works with his brother Steve and Steve’s family. The girl was reported missing July 17, two hours after she left her home for a five-block bicycle ride to a convenience store. On Tuesday, Steve Clark went to the Chaves County sheriff’s department and reported that a tractor had been used to dig near the ranch house, according to an affidavit filed Wednesday in magistrate court. He said there was no reason for the digging and when he inspected the area he saw what appeared to be a human rib cage, the affidavit said. 

Officers found the gravesite on the Diamond A Cattle Co.’s Squaw Canyon Ranch and called in agents from the state crime laboratory and the medical examiner. ″The limbs of the child were trussed and she was buried in such a way without clothes to show that the death was a homicide consistent with sexual abuse,″ according the affidavit signed by Sheriff Terrell Tucker. 

Terry Clark was one of the few people who had access to the remote ranch where he was arrested, according to court records. ″The murder count alleges that the homicide was committed as a result of a sexual attack and to eliminate a witness to the crime,″ prosecutor Charles J. Plath said Wednesday. Those circumstances could mean the death penalty for Clark if he is convicted, Plath said. Clark, held without bond in the Chaves County Jail, was scheduled for a July 31 hearing.

Clark was convicted in 1985 of kidnapping and rape in a sexual assault on a 6-year-old Roswell girl in 1984, but was free on $50,000 bond pending appeal. The New Mexico Court of Appeals in June upheld the conviction and affirmed Clark’s 24-year sentence. Clark petitioned the state Supreme Court for a review of the decision, which the court denied Wednesday.

According to the search results, Lynn Gore was a 9-year-old girl from Artesia, New Mexico whose body was found in a shallow grave on a ranch in southeast New Mexico in 1986. 1The key details are:

• Lynn Gore, a 9-year-old girl from Artesia, New Mexico, was reported missing on July 17, 1986 after leaving her home for a short bicycle ride. 1
• Two hours later, her body was found in a shallow grave on a ranch in southeast New Mexico where Terry D. Clark, a convicted child molester, lived and worked with his brother Steve. 1
• The medical examiner determined that Lynn’s death was a homicide consistent with sexual abuse, as her limbs were trussed and she was buried without clothes. 1
• Terry Clark was charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in Lynn’s death. The murder was alleged to have been committed as a result of a sexual attack to eliminate a witness to the crime. 1

So in summary, Lynn Gore was a young girl who was tragically murdered, and her killer was a convicted child molester who lived on the ranch where her body was found. The search results provide the key details about this tragic case. 1