Terry Clark

Also known as: Terry Douglas Clark, Terry D. Clark

Active: 1986–1986
Region: Artesia, New Mexico, USA
State: NM
Kind: Single
Status: Executed
Victims: 1

On July 17, 1986, nine-year-old Dena Lynn Gore was abducted in Artesia, New Mexico, as she rode her brother's bicycle to a convenience store near her home. Terry Clark, who was free on bond while appealing an earlier conviction for kidnapping and raping a young girl, took her to the ranch where he worked and killed her. He pleaded guilty to her murder and was twice sentenced to death. On November 6, 2001, he became the only person executed in New Mexico after 1960; the state abolished the death penalty in 2009.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Dena Lynn Gore, 9 · July 17, 1986
A nine-year-old Artesia girl, on her way to a neighborhood convenience store.

Timeline of locations

July 17, 1986
Artesia (near her home) (Abduction, approximate area)
Dena Gore was abducted while riding her brother's bicycle to a convenience store near her home in Artesia.
July 22, 1986
Ranch in Chaves County (Recovery site, approximate area)
Her body was found on July 22, 1986, in a shallow grave on a ranch in Chaves County, near Artesia, where Clark worked. The ranch foreman, Clark's brother, pointed investigators to him.
May 1987
Sentencing trial, Tucumcari (Court / trial, approximate area)
After Clark pleaded guilty, a Tucumcari jury sentenced him to death in 1987. The state Supreme Court overturned the sentence in 1994.
March 1996
Resentencing trial, Silver City (Court / trial, approximate area)
A second sentencing trial in Silver City in 1996 again returned a death sentence.
November 6, 2001
Penitentiary of New Mexico (Prison)
Clark was executed by lethal injection here on November 6, 2001.

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.