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Forensic Science

Police & Fire
NJ Pastor Not Guilty Of 8-Year-Old Gretchen Harrington's Homicide In PA NJ Pastor Not Guilty Of 8-Year-Old Gretchen Harrington's Homicide In PA
NJ Pastor Not Guilty Of 8-Year-Old Gretchen Harrington's Homicide In PA Nearly 50 years after 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington was abducted and killed in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, David Zandstra, a former pastor accused of her murder, has been found not guilty. Court records updated on Saturday, Jan. 18, show Zandstra was acquitted of all charges following a trial on Friday, Jan. 17. The charges included Criminal Homicide, First-Degree Murder, Second-Degree Murder, and Third-Degree Murder. Additional charges, including Possession of an Instrument of Crime, were dismissed or withdrawn. David Zandstra, 83, originally from New Jersey and most recently of M…

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by Jillian Pikora
News
COLD CASE: 50 Years After Teen’s Savage Stabbing At PA Mall, Police Still Seek Tips COLD CASE: 50 Years After Teen’s Savage Stabbing At PA Mall, Police Still Seek Tips
Cold CASE: 50 Years After Teen’s Savage Stabbing At PA Mall, Police Still Seek Tips A 17-year-old was savagely stabbed to death in the parking lot of the Oxford Valley Mall 50 years ago, and investigators are renewing their plea for tips to solve the chilling cold case, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday, Jan. 13. Patricia “Patty” Bartlett, a senior at Pennsbury High School, was attacked near the former Gimbels department store in Middletown Township around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 13, 1975, police said. Officers found her suffering from multiple stab wounds in the mall’s east parking lot at 2300 E. Lincoln Highway. She was rushed to the hospital but …

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by Jillian Pikora
Police & Fire
Identity Of Woman Found Dead In Lebanon County 51 Years Ago Revealed: PA State Police Identity Of Woman Found Dead In Lebanon County 51 Years Ago Revealed: PA State Police
Identity Of Woman Found Dead In Lebanon County 51 Years Ago Revealed: PA State Police On Oct. 10, 1973, two game wardens made a grim discovery in a wooded area off Moonshine Road near Ridge and Tomstown Roads in Union Township, Lebanon County. Beneath a plastic tarp and brush lay the decomposed remains of a young woman, Pennsylvania State Police said. For 51 years, her identity remained a mystery. Now, investigators say they’ve identified her as 14-year-old Ruth "Ruthy" Elizabeth Brenneman, she was about one month away from her 15th birthday, which was Nov. 26, 1958, and was a high school student. She went missing on her way to school, troopers explained at a pre…

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by Jillian Pikora
News
Grindr Meetup Ends With Dismemberment Of PA 14-Year-Old: Affidavit Grindr Meetup Ends With Dismemberment Of PA 14-Year-Old: Affidavit
Grindr Meetup Ends With Dismemberment Of PA 14-Year-Old: Affidavit A 14-year-old transgender teenager from Western Pennsylvania met their alleged killer through the dating app Grindr, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by Daily Voice.  Dashawn Dale Depree Watkins, 29 of Sharon, is in the Mercer County Prison after bloody clothes and surveillance videos linked him to the brutal dismembering of 14-year-old Pauly Likens, the Pennsylvania State Police explained in a press release and court documents.  Likens was reported missing by "his" father (who does not acknowledge his son's transition to become a girl, the police explained in the affida…

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by Jillian Pikora
Police & Fire
COLD CASE: Remains Of Unidentified Child Found In Philadelphia's Germantown COLD CASE: Remains Of Unidentified Child Found In Philadelphia's Germantown
Cold CASE: Remains Of Unidentified Child Found In Philadelphia's Germantown Almost 40 years after her remains were discovered in Philadelphia, authorities are still working to identify the Collom Street Jane Doe.  Skeletal remains including a skull, a jaw, and three other bones were located in a wooded area on Nov. 25, 1984, according to state police and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. The bones were discovered by a resident's dog behind a property at 456 E. Collom Street, authorities say. Police were never able to locate the rest of the victim's remains.  Investigators believe the remains belonged to a black girl between …

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by Mac Bullock
Police & Fire
Arrest Made In Pennsylvania Widow's 1989 Murder: Prosecutors Arrest Made In Pennsylvania Widow's 1989 Murder: Prosecutors
Arrest Made In Pennsylvania Widow's 1989 Murder: Prosecutors More than 35 years after she was found murdered in her Coplay home, Lehigh County authorities say they have arrested Rose Josephine Hnath's killer.  Michael Breisch was arrested in Ohio this week, the District Attorney's Office said Thursday, May 16.  Hnath, 78, was found dead from stab wounds and blunt force trauma at her 2690 2nd Street home on Jan. 21, 1989. Family members discovered the scene after she failed to show up for her usual church service that morning, prosecutors said.  The home had been ransacked, and defensive wounds suggested she tried to fight off her…

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by Mac Bullock
Obituaries
I-83 Driver Involved In Crash In Harrisburg Found Dead On Island In Lancaster Near 1 Year Later I-83 Driver Involved In Crash In Harrisburg Found Dead On Island In Lancaster Near 1 Year Later
I-83 Driver Involved In Crash In Harrisburg Found Dead On Island In Lancaster Near 1 Year Later A crash on Interstate 83, a missing Harrisburg man, and a skeleton found on an island in Lancaster nearly a year later, are all linked together authorities announced on Wednesday, Oct. 5.  Stephen Salazar had been involved in a crash in the northbound lanes of I-83 near the 2nd Street Exit on Dec. 23, 2021, at approximately 5:30 p.m., according to Lower Paxton Township police.  The Township police issued a missing person alert on Dec. 29 at 6:45 p.m., but the 61-year-old was never heard from again.  Salazar was described as a White man who was approximately 5'8" tall, heavy …

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by Jillian Pikora