Dan Coyle is pinning his hopes on advances in know-how and DNA testing to assist remedy the homicide of his mom, Stephanie, who was brutally stabbed 31 years in the past this week at her residence in Arnold.
“For years, we had been begging the Westmoreland County DA’s workplace to ship the DNA to get the genealogical testing completed. They lastly did it about 21⁄2 years in the past however we’ve heard nothing,” mentioned Coyle, who, at 77, is three years older than his mom when she was sexually assaulted and stabbed
July 16, 1993.
Her physique was found by the owner in her residence behind Fourth Avenue. Police at the moment mentioned her throat was reduce and a design was carved into her again.
“Cyril Wecht instructed me it was probably the most brutal murders he’d seen,” Coyle mentioned. “He couldn’t consider that in such a small city, the place everybody is aware of everybody, that it wasn’t solved shortly.”
Coyle mentioned time has lessened the ache however not his drive to know what occurred.
“I not solely wish to know who, however why,” mentioned Coyle of Buffalo Township.
Within the many years because the Stephanie Coyle case ran chilly, advances in DNA and forensic know-how, resembling genetic family tree and familial DNA,
have helped police establish suspects in lots of chilly instances.
Offenders of sure crimes are required to submit their DNA right into a nationwide database, which might assist in fixing crimes.
Final week, District Legal professional Nicole Ziccarelli introduced the hiring of Texas-based Othram Inc. to guage and examine DNA samples in older instances the place investigations have stalled.
The hope is outcomes will assist formulate new leads or establish suspects in violent crime chilly instances.
“We’re all the time taking a look at each avenue to develop leads and produce perpetrators to justice,” Ziccarelli mentioned. “I can not think about the aid and reassurance this might carry a sufferer or household if it results in a decision and justice.”
Othram can be paid by a $50,000 state grant to assessment proof in as many as 10 violent crimes that stay unsolved.
Coyle’s case, nevertheless, won’t be amongst them, in response to Melanie Jones, spokeswoman for the District Legal professional’s Workplace.
The DA’s workplace, inside the previous three years, despatched Coyle’s DNA to a different lab, and detectives are following up on these outcomes, Jones mentioned.
“We’re nonetheless actively investigating the case,” she mentioned.
The information doesn’t sit nicely with Dan Coyle.
“We met with the DA and detectives two and a half years in the past, and it was an excellent assembly,” he mentioned. “However there’s been nothing since.
“They mentioned they’ve a number of names they’re following up on, however there’s nonetheless no outcomes.”
Detective John Clark, head of the investigation, didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Ziccarelli mentioned each case her workplace investigates and prosecutes is a precedence.
“Because the district lawyer, I wish to commit no matter sources essential to carry a decision to a case, regardless of how lengthy it takes,” she mentioned.
Coyle in recent times has reached out to different native investigators and employed personal detective Ken Mains, who has been featured on TV’s Historical past Channel.
Mains produced a 70-page report naming three individuals he believes might be linked to the killing.
Ziccarelli’s workplace has the findings.
Within the meantime, Coyle continues to supply a $10,000 reward for data resulting in the arrest of a suspect.
For years, he hung posters all through his mom’s Arnold neighborhood however says he not bothers.
“It doesn’t imply we’ve given up,” he mentioned. “I’m gonna hold it on the market by speaking about it so individuals don’t neglect.
“I do know my mom would say for us to maintain on residing and, certain, it’s a bit simpler to cope with in any case this time,” he mentioned. “However typically the recollections pop proper out.”
Tawnya Panizzi is a TribLive reporter. She joined the Trib in 1997. She could be reached at [email protected].
