Police arrest a suspect in the 1989 murder of a Pennsylvania woman

US News

From Allie Griffin

Police have finally arrested a suspect in the murder of a Pennsylvania woman who was repeatedly stabbed and beaten to death during a home invasion 35 years ago.

Authorities arrested Michael Breisch, 65, in Ohio this week after new technology linked his DNA to evidence left at the 1989 crime scene of 78-year-old Rose Hnath, the Lehigh County district attorney announced Thursday.

When Hnath failed to show up for church on January 21, 1989, Hnath’s relatives went to her home, where she lived alone after her husband’s death, to check on her.

Her nephew went inside and found the widow “stabbed and beaten in the living room,” Detective Robert Devers told 69 News.

The home was ransacked and torn apart, and a knife believed to have been used in the murder was left behind, investigators said. Hnath also had defensive wounds that suggested she was fighting back against her attacker.

But the case was not pursued further for more than three decades – although those responsible never stopped trying to find Hanth’s murderer.

New DNA technology not available at the time of the murder ultimately led to the breakthrough, Lehigh County Prosecutor Gavin Holihan said at a news conference Thursday, which was recorded by the tracking station.

“We have come to the end of a long investigation that, although unconducted, has never been forgotten and never set aside,” the Pennsylvania Attorney General said.

Breisch, who was 30 at the time of the murder, lived in a community correctional facility in nearby Allentown and is not believed to have known his alleged victim, Holihan said. The district attorney did not provide information about his criminal record or why he was living in a correctional facility.

The accused killer had recently moved to Wind Gap, Ohio, where law enforcement officers, working with Pennsylvania authorities, arrested him.

He has since been extradited to the state and is being held without bail in the Lehigh County Jail, Holihan said.

“There is no carte blanche when it comes to murder,” the prosecutor said. “The cases remain, and the investigators’ memories remain, and the case files remain.”

Breisch faces charges of criminal homicide, burglary and robbery – causing serious bodily harm and serious bodily harm.

Meanwhile, Hnath’s surviving family members have been informed of his arrest and have expressed both relief and gratitude, Holihan said.

“It is not lost on our current office that these are families who have lost someone. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been, they will continue to stick with the case,” he added.