In the autumn of 1986, a shadow fell over Suitland, Maryland, as a series of brutal killings began to terrorize the community. Among the victims was Pamela Malcolm, a 25-year-old African-American woman. She was last seen on the evening of October 21, 1986, when she left the apartment she shared with her mother to buy a pack of cigarettes. She never returned. For months, her whereabouts remained a mystery, a painful void in the lives of those who knew her.
The chilling answer to her disappearance came on January 12, 1987, when her body was discovered near the Bradbury Recreational Center in Suitland, less than a mile from her home. The investigation would reveal that she had been raped and stabbed to death.
The discovery of Pamela Malcolm's body was a grim turning point in what would become known as the Suitland murders. The day after she was found, a 75-member task force initiated a search of the surrounding eight-acre area. This search uncovered the bodies of two more women, Cynthia Lee Westbury and Juanita Marie Walls, who had also been raped and stabbed. The following day, the body of another victim, Angela Maria Wilkerson, was found nearby. All the victims were young, African-American women who had been sexually assaulted and stabbed. The community was gripped by fear as it became clear a serial killer was in their midst.
In the course of the investigation, law enforcement identified a person of interest, Alton Alonso Best, a resident of Washington, D.C. Best was arrested for the murder of another woman, a crime that was not officially linked to the Suitland slayings. However, a significant development occurred after his arrest: the killings stopped. Despite this, Alton Alonso Best was never formally charged with the murder of Pamela Malcolm or the other victims of the Suitland murders. While the cessation of the murders following his incarceration led many to believe he was the perpetrator, no definitive forensic evidence was presented to connect him to the crimes. The case of Pamela Malcolm's death, along with the other Suitland murders, officially remains a haunting and unresolved chapter in the region's history, leaving a lingering sense of injustice for the victims and their families.
