Helen Louise Bellamy, a 30-year-old Black woman, was killed inside her Milwaukee North Side home on April 25, 1980. She was sexually assaulted and beaten to death with a tire jack; her 13-year-old son returned from school and found her body in the dining room partially covered with a sheet. Investigators early on searched for two men seen in the area wearing overalls who may have posed as television repairmen to gain access to residences.

Bellamy’s killing was later linked to a series of North Side homicides that occurred between July 1979 and April 1980. Authorities tied those cases to David Allen Van Dyke after comparing fingerprints and, following interrogation, charging him with six counts of first-degree murder plus attempted murder and armed robbery. At trial in February 1981 Van Dyke was convicted on all counts, including Bellamy’s murder, and received six life sentences plus 40 years.

Does anyone have further information about Bellamy’s life or the neighborhood context in 1980 that could add to the record?