Baltimore Sun Articles

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• Body feared that of missing girl

  Female corpse found near mall
  Published on: August 18, 1993
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  A volunteer search team with dogs looking for a missing 16-year-old Columbia girl yesterday morning found the nude body of a female in a culvert under Little Patuxent Parkway, about a quarter-mile from the Mall in Columbia, Howard County police said. Police could not confirm whether the badly decomposed body was that of Tara Gladden, who has been missing since July 22.
  
  The body, which was not immediately identified because of its condition, was found in a wooded area not far from

• Family's worst fears are realized

  Remains are those of missing girl, 15
  Published on: August 19, 1993
  Edition: FINAL
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  The state medical examiner's office identified yesterday the body found in a culvert under Little Patuxent Parkway Tuesday as a 15-year-old Columbia girl who had been missing for almost a month. Tara Allison Gladden's partially decomposed body was identified by her dental records. Tara had been missing since July 22, when her mother returned to the family's home and found an open basement door.
  
  The medical examiner's office is expected to

• 'Had God Fallen Asleep?'

  HOWARD COUNTY
  Published on: August 19, 1993
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: EDITORAL
  Page: 18A

  We could hunt for weeks for words to describe the depravity, brutality and callousness of a string of unrelated attacks in Howard County, and never come close to expressing the void, the ache and the fear as did the victims' loved ones recently: * ``I often wonder if God had fallen asleep allowing this to happen or was it God's wish to take a loving, gentle soul away from this world, a mother from her child, a wife from her husband, a sister, a daughter and a friend so

• Friends, family describe a girl who 'liked to laugh'

  Kin say Tara Gladden was led astray
  Published on: August 20, 1993
  Edition: FINAL
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  Shawn Gladden won't forget his little sister, Tara. She had looked to him all her life for protection, security and a little brotherly love. Until the state medical examiner's office identified the body found in a culvert under Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia Tuesday morning as Tara's, 19-year-old Shawn had hoped against hope.
  
  ``Even when they discovered the body, I had a brotherly feeling it wasn't her,'' he said.

• Tara A. Gladden

  High school sophomore
  Published on: August 22, 1993
  Edition: FINAL
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 4B

  Tara Allison Gladden, 15, a sophomore at Atholton High School in Columbia, was found dead Tuesday in Columbia after she had been missing since July 22. A cause of death has not yet been determined, police said. Educated in Howard County public schools, Tara previously attended Wilde Lake High School.
  
  Tara was a native of Cockeysville and moved with her family to Columbia 13 years ago.
  
  Her interests included dance and soccer, which she played while attending Wilde Lake High School.

• Tara Gladden is buried amid tears, memories and terrible uncertainty

  Published on: August 24, 1993
  Edition: FINAL
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  As Tara Allison Gladden was laid to rest yesterday morning, medical officials and Howard County police were still unsure what caused her death. The 15-year-old whose family and friends in Columbia knew her as a ``quiet and shy girl who liked to laugh,'' was buried at a Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium yesterday after Catholic funeral services in Columbia. Her coffin was topped with white and pink roses.
  
  Inside the Meeting House, an interfaith center in the

• Slain teen's family still seeking answers

  Published on: August 25, 1993
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  The murder of a 15-year-old Columbia girl has led to a crusade by her family -- to answer the mystery of how she died and who killed her. Police acknowledged for the first time yesterday that they are treating Tara Allison Gladden's death as a homicide.
  
  And one day after burying Tara, her survivors announced the creation of a fund in her name, money they hope will be an attractive reward for anyone with information about her death or disappearance July 22.
  
  ``We desperately

• Reward Fund grows in Tara Gladden Case

  Family,friends solicit donations
  Published on: August 30, 1993
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 8B

  About 40 friends and relatives of Tara Gladden spent Saturday soliciting donations from drivers along Little Patuxent Parkway, hoping the lure of a sizable reward will help police find the teen-age girl's killer. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the group approached vehicles stopped at traffic lights along a four-block stretch. As vans, trucks, Corvettes and family station wagons drove by, the volunteers would run through traffic with their pails and ask for money. At times, they were lured

• Teen's death raises concerns about security

  Officials promote watch program
  Published on: September 22, 1993
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 3B

  The death of 15-year-old Tara Gladden and the discovery of her body a short distance from her Vantage Point home has heightened fears of crime among some Town Center residents and Columbia officials. Village officials are attempting to form a Neighborhood Watch Program to deter crime, and the Columbia Council is considering taking a more active role in public safety issues in light of the Atholton High School student's death and other recent crimes.
  
  ``There certainly is more

• New sex charges filed against suspect in killing

  Baltimore man accused of rape
  Published on: October 13, 1993
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 5B

  A 28-year-old Baltimore man who police say is a suspect in the death of a 15-year-old Columbia girl was charged yesterday with new sex offenses against one of three girls with whom he is accused of having sexual relations in the past year. Curtis Aden Jamison was taken from the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup to police headquarters in Ellicott City and formally charged with second-degree rape, a second-degree sex offense and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
  
  He has been

• Gladden death was homicide, state confirms

  15-year-old's body was found in Aug.
  Published on: November 10, 1993
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  Nearly three months after her partially decomposed body was found in a culvert under busy Little Patuxent Parkway, the state medical examiner's office confirmed yesterday that 15-year-old Tara Allison Gladden was murdered, probably by suffocation or strangulation. A one-page press release confirmed the worst suspicions of family members who reported her missing from their home in the 5600 block of Vantage Pint Road on July 22.
  
  ``In consideration of the circumstances under which

• Vandals remove memorials to teen who was slain and 2 who died in crash

  Published on: December 5, 1993
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 8B

  Homemade memorials for three Columbia teens, two who died in a car crash and one a murder victim, have been vandalized or removed from sites on Governor Warfield Boulevard and Little Patuxent Parkway, apparently during the Thanksgiving holiday, family members say. Police believe a few joy-riding teens may have snatched the homemade cross put up by the parents of 15-year-old Tara Gladden, whose body was found over the summer in a culvert beneath Little Patuxent Parkway near her Vantage Point

• Charges consolidated against Jamison, 28

  Published on: December 15, 1993
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  County prosecutors dropped an indictment Monday against a man accused of having a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old Columbia girl and suspected in the slaying of another girl. Curtis Aden Jamison, 28, of Baltimore, was cleared of one count of second-degree rape by Howard Circuit Judge Dennis Sweeney, but still faces numerous counts for his relationship with the girl.
  
  The girl had introduced Mr. Jamison to Tara Allison Gladden, a 15-year-old Columbia girl whose body was found in a

• Crime declines 3.4% in 1993

  community policing credited
  Published on: February 6, 1994
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 7B

  Crime may be the most important issue cited in recent national opinion polls, but Howard police say year-end county crime statistics released last week are encouraging. Overall, crime dropped 3.4 percent in 1993, an improvement police attribute to the success of community-oriented policing, a partnership in which residents and officers work together to prevent and resolve crime.
  
  Police Chief James Robey turned the long-held ideal into department policy when he took office in March 1991,

• Man jailed for sex with young girls

  Published on: April 26, 1994
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  A man whom Howard County police suspect in the slaying of a Columbia girl last summer was sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday for having sexual relationships with two other girls. Curtis Aden Jamison, 29, of Baltimore was given the sentence after pleading guilty in Howard Circuit Court to three counts of second-degree rape and one second-degree sexual offense.
  
  Jamison pleaded guilty to charges that he had intercourse and performed sex acts with two girls. The victims were 12 and 13

• Have dogs, will travel, searchers say

  Published on: May 2, 1994
  Edition: FINAL
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 12B

  Thunder shot through thick briers, trampling branches and weeds, finding her way along a scent-laden trail. Seconds later, the black Labrador returned to her handler, Bob Session, then darted back to her discovery. Her discovery of the body of 25-year-old John Wayne Landon of Laurel ended an 11-day search for Mr. Landon, who had been reported missing March 6. Mr. Landon had been beaten to death.
  
  Dennis Donald Ingram, 33, also of Laurel, was charged with murder in the death of Mr. Landon,

• Killing of girl remains a mystery a year later

  Published on: August 14, 1994
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  It's almost a year since 15-year-old Tara Gladden's body was found in a culvert under Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia Aug. 17. It has been a year of frustration for county police who have been unable to find enough evidence to close the case, a year of anguish for her family who are unable to forget. Police have named Curtis Aden Jamison, 29, with whom Tara had had a sexual relationship, as a suspect in the killing.
  
  Jamison has been in the Roxbury Correctional

• Chief Robey's Prime Time Debacle

  Published on: April 13, 1995
  Edition: FINAL
  Section: EDITORAL
  Page: 22A

  The latest crime statistics help to betray the fact that the public's fear of crime in Howard County exceeds the reality. While the total number of crimes committed in Howard has increased, the crime rate has gone down in light of the county's growing population. The result has been that the chance of being a victim of crime in Howard -- particularly violent crime -- is less than almost anywhere else in suburban Maryland. We don't mean to diminish

• Parents of slain girl testify at trial

  They say they tried to keep her away from defendant;
  Left alone, she vanished; Father says he, police went to man's home in search of daughter
  Published on: October 19, 1995
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1B

  TC John and Johanna Gladden testified yesterday that they kept a watchful eye on their 15-year-old daughter in a desperate effort to keep her away from the man with whom she had a sexual relationship. But on the one day they left her alone, she vanished. The Columbia couple testified for the prosecution in the Howard Circuit Court trial of Curtis Aden Jamison, the 30-year-old Baltimore man charged in the 1993 slaying of the Gladden's daughter, Tara Allison Gladden.
  
  Prosecutors

• Jamison's sentencing is postponed until Jan. 19

  Killer of Tara Gladden is granted his request for presentencing inquiry
  Published on: November 22, 1995
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 3B

  The family of a slain Columbia teen went to her murderer's sentencing trial in Howard County Circuit Court yesterday in search of closure, but was handed a two-month postponement instead. ``At least we'll get a late Christmas present,'' said John Gladden, father of 15-year-old Tara Allison Gladden, who was strangled two summers ago by Curtis Aden Jamison.
  
  ``All good things are worth waiting for,'' Mr. Gladden added.

• Man gets life for slaying Columbia teen

  Judge says no parole for Tara Gladden's killer
  Published on: January 20, 1996
  Edition: FINAL
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 16B

  A Howard County judge yesterday sentenced a Baltimore man to life in prison without parole for killing a 15-year-old Columbia girl in 1993 to cover up his unlawful sexual relationship with the minor. Curtis A. Jamison, 30, showed no emotion as Circuit Judge James Dudley told him he could never hope to leave prison. He scratched his head with one finger and glanced at his mother, father and sister after hearing the sentence.
  
  On the other side of the courtroom, tearful relatives of the

• Behind the crime stats

  High-profile cases shape opinion as much as jumble of numbers.
  Published on: March 13, 1996
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: EDITORAL
  Page: 14A

  SEPARATE REPORTS in Howard County recently showed increases in serious crime, fewer arrests for such crimes and an overall drop in complaints against the police department. Crime up, satisfaction up, too? What's wrong with this picture? Perhaps nothing. As many statistics as get churned out about crime, the data itself rarely seems to determine public opinion. Often, the belief exists that crime is soaring even in areas where statistics show otherwise, says Katheryn Russel, a

• [no title given]

  Published on: May 5, 1996
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 4C

  Police shooting of Clarksville man questioned I am writing in response to a series of articles written in The Sun for Howard County on April 22, regarding the killing of a Clarksville man by Howard County police on April 20. This tragic and sad event struck very close to home for myself and a number of other long-time local residents who were among Randy Pratt's friends and acquaintances. The newspaper account left Randy with a public eulogy of having been a violent, life-long petty

• Slain girl's relatives make sure her name lives

  Tara Allison Gladden memorial fund started to help other families
  Published on: August 18, 1996
  Edition: HOWARD
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1C

  The Gladden family had a reunion of sorts: Parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends greeted one another with hugs and kisses. John and Johanna Gladden circulated Friday through the group that included Howard County police officers and Columbia Foundation officials, making sure everyone felt welcome and comfortable.
  
  But the smiles and chatter could not hide the absence of the person who brought them together. The crowd gathered to establish the Tara Gladden

• On this spot died one who was loved

  Memorials: Behind each cross or bunch of flowers beside the road is a story with a sad ending.
  Published on: May 4, 1997
  Edition: FINAL
  Section: NEWS
  Page: 1A

  In a wooded glen, a portrait of a smiling boy is nailed to a tree. A country lane winds past, and the early spring air is alive with the scent of wild onions and new leaves. Scant feet away a yellow road sign cautions, ``Sharp Hillcrest Ahead, 25 mph,'' but the warning comes too late for the boy who looks so young and full of life.
  
  ``Lee Welch. 1978-1995. We miss you.'' The words above the picture tell the story. There is more to the story, of