Baltimore, Maryland, September 23, 2026– Sixty-seven-year-old David Alexander Williams has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death, believed to be a homicide, of a 23-year-old dancer in Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park nearly 40 years ago. On Monday, the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office revealed the charge, which came after DNA from the crime scene and the victim aided in solving the case. Williams is presumed innocent until he is found guilty in court.
The 1986 crime
Teresa Ann Houck was a dancer at the Pussycat Club. She departed about 2 a.m. Oct. 22, 1986, without being seen alive again by co-workers; she was allegedly ordered to leave by the masked man. Her body was discovered about three hours later in a patch of grass in Druid Hill Park, where she had three gunshot wounds in the chest, neck and head, and was nude from the waist down. There were a couple of jeans about 10 feet away, bundled up on the ground.
The man charged in a cold case homicide in Baltimore in 1986 is based on DNA evidence.
Her car was discovered in a parking lot adjacent to Baltimore and Holiday streets, just a block away from the club, raising suspicions with detectives that she was driven to the park where she was killed. There was no arrest, and the case would remain unsolved for decades.
The forensic timeline
The case was based on the preservation and re-examination of biological evidence, using newer technology.
1986: evidence collected. Houck’s body was sent to a lab for the analysis of the forensic evidence. An autopsy was performed, a sexual assault examination was completed, and swabs were preserved.
2005: a profile is created. Scientists were able to identify sperm found in Houck’s body and cut out a piece for DNA analysis, making a male DNA profile, which was put into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in May 2005. CODIS is an FBI national database of DNA profiles. Generally, a profile derived from crime-scene evidence is compared with profiles of convicted criminals and (in some states) a number of arrestees, as well as other crime-scene profiles.
2007: a link to another crime. After 2 years, the DNA was compared to DNA from a rape and non-fatal shooting in Baltimore County. That match linked together two cases, one of which was an unknown donor, but no names were mentioned.
September 2025: the offender hit. On September 18, 2025, a CODIS “Hit Letter” from the Maryland State Police was received stating that a routine DNA search of the Maryland DNA Database resulted in a high stringency match between the male profile from the vaginal swabs recovered from Houck and Williams (DNA collected on July 1, 2025). The reports do not indicate how the sample was taken in July 2025.
2026: confirmation. A search warrant was issued to take an oral DNA sample, which was then taken and compared with the second sample by the Baltimore Police crime lab, which determined Williams was the only donor of the sperm that had been removed from Houck’s mouth. In May 2026, he was interviewed in the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, and other DNA samples collected since then matched the profile from Houck.
The reason why the confirmation step is crucial.
A Database Hit is an investigative lead and not proof. Investigators typically try to get a new, properly documented reference sample and ask a laboratory to compare it with the evidence profile. This is the effect the warrant and second test had here. It also prevents sample mix-up and clerical error in the database and provides prosecutors with a clean chain of evidence for court.
Sole contributor refers to the crime lab finding no other male DNA in the sperm fraction that would indicate multiple semen donors. This is much more effective than a match to a mixed sample.
Maintaining evidence for years, or decades.
The case also demonstrates the time span of the usefulness of biological evidence. In 1986, the swabs were still suitable for analysis, and this profile has been in the system for 20 years without a name. This is background information, not necessarily information that’s in the reports; dried biological material can remain viable for a long time when stored correctly; and since the 1980s, DNA testing techniques have become much more sensitive and can be applied to samples that were previously too degraded and small.
The suspect’s response and the allegation.
The court documents state that Williams told investigators he’d “never had sexual intercourse with a white female and was not in Maryland in 1986” and that he wasn’t involved in Houck’s death. The defence has yet to appear in court, and at the time The Banner reported, Williams did not have an attorney registered online with the court.
Earlier this year, Williams was convicted of first-degree murder and five gun charges in the June, 2025 shooting of his wife Lillian Williams at their home in Abingdon. He was prohibited from owning a gun due to a 1978 armed robbery conviction in Harford County, he said. The reports don’t confirm it, but it’s possible that this is why his profile is in a database in the first place.
What prosecutors are saying
State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said that while close to four decades have passed, he believed that the office’s thirst for justice for Houck and her family never died down. He also thanked law enforcement partners and advancements in forensic technology for bringing new hope to families. Bates set up a specialized Cold Case Unit in April 2024 to work with Baltimore Police on unsolved homicides.
References/ Credits:
- CBS News Baltimore, “DNA evidence leads to man charged in cold case homicide in Baltimore in 1986”: https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/man-charged-cold-case-homicide-1986-baltimore/
- The Baltimore Banner, “Man charged in Baltimore cold case 40 years after woman’s body found in Druid Hill Park”: https://www.thebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/cold-case-teresa-ann-houck-druid-hill-park-5FYXMQU2OVAQPM4WXD764TQSDU/
- WMAR-2 News, “Incarcerated man charged in 1986 Druid Hill Park cold case murder”: https://www.wmar2news.com/marylandcoldcases/incarcerated-man-charged-in-1986-druid-hill-park-cold-case-murder
- Hoodline, “DNA match charges man in 1986 murder of Baltimore dancer found in Druid Hill Park”: https://hoodline.com/2026/09/dna-match-charges-man-in-1986-murder-of-baltimore-dancer-found-in-druid-hill-park/
- PEOPLE (via Yahoo), “Dancer Was Found Shot to Death in Baltimore Park in 1986. Nearly 40 Years Later, a Man Is Charged with Murder”: https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/dancer-found-shot-death-baltimore-231832743.html
- Gossip Herald, “Maryland man charged in 1986 killing of dancer after DNA match”: https://www.gossipherald.com/news/66089-maryland-man-charged-in-1986-killing-of-dancer-after-dna-match
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