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Police: Murder convict confesses to 2 additional slayings

COUNTY PRISONS
Posted at 5:54 PM, Jan 20, 2022
and last updated 2022-01-20 17:54:04-05

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Police say that a man serving a life sentence in Virginia on a murder conviction has now confessed to two additional slayings, one of which goes back 35 years.

Fairfax County Police said at a press conference that Charles Helem has been charged with murder in the 1987 slaying of 37-year-old Eige Sober-Adler.

According to the Associated Press, Her body was found behind a motel in a field after her car was found abandoned on the Dulles Toll Road in Herndon.

In addition, Prince George's County Police in Maryland announced that Helem confessed to the 2002 slaying of 19-year-old Jennifer Landry, 19, of Randolph, Massachusetts.

The news outlet reported that the 52-year-old picked her up in Washington, D.C., and then killed in the Mount Rainier area shortly thereafter.

Helem is already serving a life sentence after being convicted of strangling his ex-girlfriend. Patricia Bentley, in 2002.

According to the AP, Helem had requested to speak to police twice, once in 2010, and again in 2017, but then refused to talk to them.

In September, cold-case detectives were finally able to get Helem to speak to them, but it's not immediately clear why he decided to talk to them now.