Teen indicted in Malone murder case

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October 28, 2011

Anonymous Press-Republican The Press Republican Fri Oct 28, 2011, 07:24 PM EDT

MALONE — A Franklin County grand jury has indicted a Malone teen for allegedly killing his mother last May.

An indictment of second-degree murder was handed up Friday afternoon against Dilan E. Clark, now 15, for allegedly killing his mother, Karen Bourdon-Clark, at their home on Route 30 in Constable.

STABBED

On May 2 at about 2:30 a.m., police went to the Bourdon-Clark residence after Bourdon-Clark’s 14-year-old daughter, Jamel, called 911. When they arrived, they found the 45-year-old Bourdon-Clark dead. Jamel was unharmed.

Dilan allegedly fled the house but was found around 6:33 a.m. sitting outside another home on Route 30, about a mile away.

Bourdon-Clark’s husband, Ron Clark, a volunteer firefighter, was in Saranac Lake helping flood victims at the time.

An autopsy showed Bourdon-Clark died of multiple stab wounds.

Dilan was charged with second-degree murder as an adult.

NOT-GUILTY PLEA

Essex County District Attorney Kristy Sprague was named special prosecutor for the case because Franklin County District Attorney Derek Sprague has a close relationship with the family.

Dilan appeared in Franklin County Court on Friday with his attorney, Stephen Vanier, and entered a plea of not guilty before Judge Robert Main.

Dilan was taken back to a facility in Albany, where he will remain without bail until further proceedings.

WELL KNOWN

Bourdon-Clark was a counselor for the Malone Central School District. That’s where she met her husband, who was a math teacher for many years.

She had been an adjunct professor of English at Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh before joining the Malone school system.

Bourdon-Clark was a cancer survivor who got the school district involved in Rachel’s Challenge, an anti-bullying program created in memory of Rachel Scott, the first victim of the Columbine school shootings in 1999.

The program has been re-named Rachel’s Challenge/Karen’s Hope in honor of Bourdon-Clark.

Earlier this month, about 3,000 people participated in a human chain along Main Street in a dramatic stance against bullying, dedicated to Bourdon-Clark.

Her death stunned community members, who remembered her as a kind, caring person who helped many.

Bourdon-Clark and her husband had adopted Jamel from Guatemala when she was 15 or 16 months old, according to friends, and they adopted Dilan when he was 5 or 6.

Dilan was an eighth-grader at Holy Family School in Malone last May.

Email Joe LoTemplio at:

jlotemplio@pressrepublican.com