CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Sunday marked 16 years since a then-19-year-old Samantha Clarke disappeared shortly after leaving her home in Orange. With no public progress being made on the case in years, Clarke’s mother told Cville Right Now she doesn’t believe the Town of Orange Police Department is doing enough to bring the family answers.

“They’re doing me wrong like they have from the beginning,” Barbara Tinder said. “And I’m really fed up with them.”

The Orange Police Department has not released any information since announcing in January 2021 that advances in forensic science prompted them to reclassify the case from missing person to abduction and homicide.

Tinder said that, three years ago, police took her to a site that was possibly a location where Clarke had been buried. No remains were found, Tinder said.

Among the last people to have contact with Clarke, according to Orange police, was Randy Taylor, who is serving two life terms after being convicted of the August 2013 abduction and murder of 17-year-old Lovingston resident Alexis Murphy in Nelson County.

Tinder said two men in prison with Taylor recorded him telling them where he buried Clarke.

“They had two guys in prison get the information from Randy and that’s why it’s on a recording, because they were wearing a recording (device) when they were talking to Randy and got the information out of him,” Tinder said. “Three years ago, they took me to the spot where Randy said he put Samantha, so they have supposedly dug there and have not found anything, and now they’re saying her remains have deteriorated and they have gave up looking for her.”

Tinder also contends the police waited two days to initiate a missing person’s case regarding her daughter.

Orange Police Chief Rebecca Nelson told Cville Right Now the investigation is still active and the department would not be releasing any new details “to protect the integrity of our operational leads, preserve critical evidence, and secure the validity of future court proceedings.”

“This case remains an active criminal investigation and one to which our department investigators have been dedicated since it began,” Nelson wrote in an email. “Our priority is a thorough investigation which ensures that justice is served. The absence of public updates does not indicate lack of progress, as investigators are continuously tracking leads behind the scenes.

“While we appreciate the public’s patience with the continuing necessity to reserve some details of this case from public eye, this is done to ensure the eventual resolution of this tragic case,” Nelson wrote.

Tinder remains suspicious of Taylor. Police said Taylor had called Clarke several times on the night she disappeared, and Tinder told Cville Right Now it was six times.

“He called our house phone, which I have no clue how he got our house phone number, and that’s how he spoke to Samantha and got her out of the house,” Tinder said. “I’m pretty sure that’s how it all went down. I worked nightshifts and I don’t get home until seven in the morning back then.”

Tinder went as far as showing up at Taylor’s Orange County residence, along with her sister to question him.

“He just stood there like he didn’t know anything and he was innocent, just staring off, wouldn’t even look at us in our face,” Tinder said.

On the night Clarke went missing, Sept. 13, 2010, Tinder remembers leaving for work while her daughter was watching television in her pajamas. Later that night, Tinder said Clarke told her younger brother she was leaving and going out with friends. Tinder said she got home the next morning and Clarke’s pajamas were folded up on her bed. She had taken her house key with her.

While Tinder thought her daughter going out that late was unusual, she figured Clarke was spending the night at a friend’s house. When Tinder awoke from a nap she took that morning after work to find Clarke still not home, she said went to the police.

Versions differ on what happened with Orange Police saying Tinder initially went to who wrong jurisdiction in Orange County rather than Town of Orange PD, and an investigation was opened about 30 hours later Sept. 15 by Orange police

Tinder said she was told an investigation couldn’t be opened until 48 hours after the person went missing.

“The town PD needs to do a better job at what they have done,” Tinder said. “I still don’t have peace because I don’t have her remains, so how can I have peace?”

Tinder said police have not allowed her to listen to the jailhouse recording, something she said she has requested to do.

“They’re refusing to let me listen to the recording where Randy said he killed my daughter and I have all rights to hear that,” Tinder said. “But they find I’m not the state of mind to listen to it. How can you say the state of mind I’m in?”