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Posted on 07/26/2022 8:24:53 AM PDT by bitt
The murder investigation included records of Italian social clubs, draft cards, and Ellis Island immigration logs.
For decades, it seemed that Lindy Sue Biechler’s killer would never be found.
The 19-year-old newlywed’s stabbing death in her Lancaster County apartment in 1975 had stunned her community and shattered her family. As years passed, police kept working the case, slowly eliminating suspects as technology improved.
Detectives on the scene had managed to save a sample of the killer’s DNA. But for decades it had no match in DNA databases of convicted criminals. That’s when CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist at Parabon Nanolabs, a company that works with police to solve cold cases, decided to dig a little differently.
She and her colleagues in Reston, Va., identified the common ancestors of people who were partial matches to the DNA sample. They were all from a small town in Italy. And through generations and generations of genealogical records, authorities identified a prime suspect.
This week, Heather Adams, the Lancaster County district attorney, announced the arrest of David Sinopli, 68, a Lancaster native whose DNA, authorities say, matched the sample taken from the scene of Biechler’s murder nearly five decades before.
“It was a really good feeling to be able to get to this point,” Adams said. “It’s also just the beginning of the court process.”
(Excerpt) Read more at inquirer.com ...
I love these solved cold case murder stories.
Thanks for posting.
Guy needs additional long term torture to pay for the decades he has walked free..
I was wondering the same thing. I didn’t think we had that capability 50 years ago.
Maybe they saved articles of evidence from the murderer and tested them later?
Yep, that’s what they did, just saved it and retested with modern equipment.......................
No, but they still gathered the evidence for blood type testing which they used at the time to narrow the range of suspects. Sometimes that evidence survives and is still in good enough condition to extract DNA from.
“If properly preserved...”
So those 1975 investigators thought “Let’s properly store this evidence so the future DNA tests that will be invented can use it”?
I just read about project Looking Glass.
Add that to your list.
There is no time limit on murder, so the evidence they had was preserved until case is closed...................
“Let’s properly store this evidence so the future DNA tests that will be invented can use it”?
They probably kept it because semen has blood in it. With advances in science they might have thought it could be useful in the future — for blood testing.
I’ve taken the tests but they haven’t revealed much. My research on Ancestry and MyHeritage has revealed lots more. The best I’ve found is a great-great aunt in 1903 (she was 18 at the time) ran away with a 40 year old married man and his son. They got to Winnipeg and started a new stable there, the “New Era” stable. She married the guy (he hadn’t divorced his wife in Iowa) but he contracted glanders from his horses and died. She moved to a small mining town in Arizona with her cousin who she later married. Then he died relatively young, too. My grandmother said their were rumors about why her two husbands had died. The boy’s biological mother hired a private investigator and got her son back.
Interesting conjecture. Makes sense.
Yes, I’m doubtful about the way DNA evidence is accepted as slam dunk proof. Nothing is 100%.
1. A DD(Direct Descendent) died in prison after an accusation that he was linked to the Knights Templar. The family lost part of Sherwood Forest.
2. DD owned a tavern where George Washington stayed.
3. Part of the family came over to England with William the Conqueror.
4. Possible common relative with my wife.
5. Found a castle owned by a DD. It is gone now
FamilySearch is what I used.
Murder seems a crime that should be solved
This is evidence. It may be powerful evidence, but it is not a guilty verdict yet.
Innocent until proven guilty.
Should’ve used China’s DNA database.
Wow, lots of cool background. I found my mom’s grandparents were homesteaders on the Saskatchewan prairie and lived in a sod house for nine years before they could afford to build a wood house.
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
FReepmail me to be added to the list.
My favorite was that one DD was the Duke of York. It seemed after King Richard died, a bunch of men made a claim to be the Duke of York. One DD had a Mayflower emblem but I didn’t see any evidence that it was real. Kinda like the person that was listed as dying on the Titanic but the grave marker said they died in the 1950’s.
Cold Case was one of my favorite TV shows.
And, like this story, it had its roots in Philadelphia.
Thanks. Though I did find that show of interest, I felt it had run it’s course.
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