LANCASTER, Pa. — Authorities have introduced an arrest within the stabbing dying of a 19-year-old lady in Pennsylvania virtually a half-century in the past, crediting advances in DNA know-how and genetic genealogical analysis.
Lancaster County prosecutors and Manor Township police mentioned Monday {that a} prison murder cost had been filed in opposition to 68-year-old David Sinopoli within the December 1975 homicide of Lindy Sue Beichler.
“Lindy Sue Beichler was 19 when her life was brutally taken away from her 46 years in the past within the sanctity of her own residence,” District Legal professional Heather Adams mentioned. She mentioned she hoped the arrest “brings some sense of aid to the sufferer’s family members and to the group (who) for the final 46 years have had no solutions.”
Extra:‘We’re coming to get you’: York Metropolis officers converse out on gun violence
Extra:Murder suspect was one in all 4 who opened hearth on sufferer: Police
Extra:‘Ghost weapons’ taken as proof in murder case as feds, state look to shut loopholes
Biechler, a flower store clerk who had gotten married a couple of 12 months earlier, was killed in the lounge of her suburban Lancaster condo after she returned from grocery purchasing. She was stabbed 19 occasions; prosecutors mentioned proof on the scene advised a sexual motive and investigators believed the killer knew her.
In 2019, prosecutors launched composite photos of a person they mentioned left DNA proof on the scene. The next 12 months, prosecutors sought additional genetic evaluation that pointed to Sinopoli, who beforehand lived in the identical four-unit condo advanced. In February, investigators “surreptitiously obtained DNA from Sinopoli from a espresso cup he used and threw right into a trash can earlier than touring on the Philadelphia Worldwide Airport,” authorities mentioned.
“This case was solved with using DNA, and particularly DNA family tree, and fairly truthfully with out that I do not know that we’d have ever solved it,” Adams mentioned, including that the suspect was “simply not on our radar” earlier than the brand new proof pointed to him.
Cece Moore of Parabon Nanolabs mentioned on the information convention she used “a novel, nontraditional” technique utilizing the DNA to slim down candidates via their familial descent from a specific space and city in Italy and following up with public information, social media and different sources. Such analysis, she careworn, solely supplies a lead or tip — “a extremely scientific tip however a tip simply the identical” — for investigators to comply with up on, she mentioned.
Sinopoli was arrested at his Lancaster dwelling Sunday and was being held with out bail on a cost of prison murder. Court docket paperwork do not checklist an lawyer representing him; a message searching for remark was left at a quantity listed in his identify.
>> Please take into account subscribing to assist native journalism.
