The "He Had To Know They Would Get Him Some Time!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Opened the daily newspaper to page A4 and across the top in perhaps 32 point bold type read: Christy Mirack murder case will be featured in TV series.  A subhead in smaller, italic non-bold type read: 'On the Case' will look at 1992 slaying of teacher up to killer's conviction. The show will be on The Investigation Discovery Network Sunday evening.  (If you would rather not hear what I am about to write about the murder, go no further with this story)  

Miss Christy Mirack, Elementary school teacher and murder victim.

It's been over a quarter of a century since Miss Mirack, a sixth grade teacher was murdered on December 21, 1992 in her residence.  Shortly after 9:00 am her body was discovered.  Police figured she was killed by someone she knew.  She died of strangulation, but was also severely beaten on the head and neck.  The police estimated she had died about 2 hours before she was found.  Five days later she was buried in her hometown of Shamokin, Pennsylvania.  On December 28, police said they were looking for a man seen parking a medium-sized car across the street from her townhouse and walking toward her home.  A few days later Police said the man was a muscular white male who was driving a white car that was maybe a 1993 Dodge Shadow, a 1990 Dodge Daytona ES or a Toyota.  Then on February 1 of 1993, blood and hair samples were taken from a 31-year-old man, but the results cleared the person who was the prime suspect.  By that time the police had already interviewed over 500 people.  That April her parents offered a $10,000 reward for information that would find their daughter's killer.  In December of 1994, Lancaster Police took the case to a group of criminal experts in Philadelphia.  Ten months later Police said they had conducted over 1,500 interviews and eliminated more than 60 men as suspects using forensic testing to compare blood and body fluid samples. Then on May 23, 2002, ten years after the murder, the Lancaster Newspaper got a call from a man asking about Miss Mirack.  The FBI were called and they said it may have been the murderer.  On December 3, 2007, Vince Mirack, Christy's brother, put up a billboard on Interstate Route 30 near State Route 283 asking for tips.  On October 22 of 2008 the FBI posts the Mirack murder on its website under "seeking information."  Eight months later, Vince creates a Facebook page under his sister's name to try and get tips.  On July 7, 2011 a local businessman put up signs asking "Who murdered Christy Mirack?"  No one wanted to let this guy get away with murder!  

Computer generated faces for different ages of the killer.

Over six years later the District Attorney's office released computer-generated images developed with DNA found at the scene to put a possible face to the killer.  Then on June 25, 2018 an arrest was made!!  49-year-old Raymond Rowe, a wedding disc jockey, known as "DJ Freez", was taken into custody.  The Police used DNA evidence to catch the killer.  They were able to identify him after a sample from the murder scene matched a sample in a publicly available genealogy database.  The match came from one of the murderer's relatives, who uploaded to GEDmatch...the same genealogy website that helped to lead to the capture of the Golden State Killer.  

The killer of Christy Mirack, Raymond Rowe.

Police used surveillance of Rowe and obtained a legal DNA sample and had their match.  Lancaster's District Attorney said, "The killer was at liberty for this brutal crime longer than Christy Mirack was on this earth alive."  Rowe was arrested and taken to Lancaster County Prison.  He may face the death penalty.  On January 9, 2019, Raymond Rowe pleaded guilty to murdering Christy Mirack in 1992.  The plead saved him from the death penalty.  For more on the story, tune in this Sunday evening to The Investigation Discovery Network.  The time and TV channel I do not know at this time.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.