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Police & Fire
COLD CASE: Investigation Continues In Wilkes-Barre Girl's 1969 Disappearance COLD CASE: Investigation Continues In Wilkes-Barre Girl's 1969 Disappearance
Cold CASE: Investigation Continues In Wilkes-Barre Girl's 1969 Disappearance Authorities are continuing to investigate the 1969 disappearance of Joan Marie Dymond.  Dymond was 14 years old when she disappeared from Andover Street Park on June 25, 1969, authorities have said.  Her remains were discovered more than 40 years later on Nov. 17, 2012, by individuals digging for relics on the grounds of a former coal-mining operation in Newport Township.  Another decade passed before DNA from family members confirmed they were Dymond's in October 2022.  Investigators still say they suspect "foul play." Anyone with information is asked to ca…

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by Mac Bullock
Police & Fire
Cigarette Butt Leads To NJ Suspect's Arrest In 2012 PA Diner Killing: DA Cigarette Butt Leads To NJ Suspect's Arrest In 2012 PA Diner Killing: DA
Cigarette Butt Leads To NJ Suspect's Arrest In 2012 PA Diner Killing: DA The alleged gunman in a deadly 2012 Reading shooting is in police custody in New Jersey, according to Berks County prosecutors.  Vallis L. Slaughter, of Jersey City, is being held in Hudson County pending his extradition to Pennsylvania, said the District Attorney's Office on Monday, March 25.  Investigators believe he killed 34-year-old Julio A. Torres on March 24, 2012. Torres was shot while sitting in his car in the parking lot of the West Reading Diner after a confrontation with suspects, the DA's Office said.  Jomaine Case was eventually convicted in connectio…

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by Mac Bullock
Police & Fire
COLD CASE: NJ Pastor Nabbed For Homicide Of 8-Year-Old Gretchen Harrington COLD CASE: NJ Pastor Nabbed For Homicide Of 8-Year-Old Gretchen Harrington
Cold CASE: NJ Pastor Nabbed For Homicide Of 8-Year-Old Gretchen Harrington Nearly 50 years after 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington was found dead in a Pennsylvania forest, police say they've arrested the man who killed her.  David Zandstra, now 83 years old, originally a pastor from New Jersey but most recently of Marietta, Georgia, is charged with criminal homicide, kidnapping a minor, and related counts, said District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer's Office in a release on Monday, July 24.  “The murder of Gretchen Harrington has haunted members of law enforcement since that terrible day in August 1975," the DA said.  "The families of victims often say that their live…

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by Mac Bullock
Police & Fire
Missing Reading Man's Remains Discovered After 8-Year Search Missing Reading Man's Remains Discovered After 8-Year Search
Missing Reading Man's Remains Discovered After 8-Year Search The partial remains of a Reading man who was reported missing in 2015 were located in Exeter Township, authorities announced at a press conference Monday, April 10.  Anthony Rodriguez, a 21-year-old who lived on Perkiomen Avenue, was reported missing to Exeter police in May 2015, Detective Joseph Malone told reporters. Rodriguez had last been seen in the Five Points section of the township near the border with Alsace, the investigator said.  "Police worked many leads in this case but were eventually led to a wooded area" in Exeter, Malone said.  In the first two "extensive searches" of the…

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by Mac Bullock
Police & Fire
Philly's 'Boy In The Box' Identified After 65 Years: Police Philly's 'Boy In The Box' Identified After 65 Years: Police
Philly's 'Boy In The Box' Identified After 65 Years: Police A boy found dead in a box 65 years ago in Philadelphia has been identified as Joseph Augustus Zarelli, city police announced at a press conference on Thursday, Dec. 8.   Dubbed "The Boy in the Box" or "America's Unknown Child" after his body was found stuffed in a bassinet box along Susquehanna Road in February 1957, the boy's case was one of the oldest unsolved murders in Philadelphia history, according to the department.  Zarelli was born in 1953, and police say they have identified his parents. Officials said they were able to identify the boy by compar…

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by Mac Bullock
News
Decorated PA Solider Identified Over 70 Years Later Decorated PA Solider Identified Over 70 Years Later
Decorated PA Solider Identified Over 70 Years Later A soldier who was killed inaction over 70 years ago has been identified, according to a release on Thursday by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Army Sgt. James N. Stryker, 20, of West Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, who was killed during the Korean War, was identified by DPAA on Aug. 5, 2020. DNA analysis was used to identify Sgt. Stryker’s remains were buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii, the release says. The remains were originally labelled Unknown X-1373 Tanggok but now his name will be recorded on the …

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by Jillian Pikora