Alfred Steck was riding the elevator up to his Silver Spring high-rise apartment when he became another victim in a bloody string of robbery murders in the summer of 1980.
Police are still looking for the two men who were seen running from the apartment building shortly before Steck’s body was discovered.
Detectives have another clue: The gun used to kill Steck was later used in the robbery of a clothing store in Takoma Park.
Montgomery County Police hope that somebody who knows who’s responsible for the robberies might have a change of heart and come forward.
Steck, 27, was a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and an expert in working on small figurines. He had an innate attention to detail that recently had landed him a job as a curator of special items for the Smithsonian.
At around 11 p.m. on July 20, 1980, Steck was returning home when he passed two men waiting in the lobby of his apartment building at 75 East Wayne Ave. Steck got into the elevator and hit the button for the sixth floor.
A short time later, witnesses heard a loud gunshot and saw two young men race out the lobby and into a large white sedan.
Police said the weapon had been used 10 days earlier to shoot an employee of the Halmar Brothers’ Men’s Clothing store, at 7639 New Hampshire Ave. That crime remains unsolved as well.
The suspects were described as thin black males, 18 to 22 years old. One man had a light complexion and was about 5 feet 9 inches tall. The other suspect had a medium brown complexion and was about 5 feet 6 inches tall.
Anybody with information about the crime can call the Montgomery County cold case squad at (240) 773-5070.
