ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A 65-year-old man will face charges in the 1989 killing of a North Whitehall woman, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan announced Thursday.
Michael Breisch, of Wind Gap, is charged with homicide, robbery and other felonies in connection with the murder of Rose Josephine Hnath, a 78-year-old widow.
Breisch was extradited and is being held without bail at the Lehigh County Jail, Holihan said.
"You don't get a free pass on murder."Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan
Hnath lived alone in the 2600 block of Second Street in North Whitehall.
Family members found her dead in her home in January 1989 after she didn’t show up for a church service, prosecutors said. She had been repeatedly stabbed and beaten, Holihan said.
“It’s clear from early on that she put up a fight,” Holihan said, adding her home was ransacked.
Some of the evidence that played a critical role in connecting Breisch to the crime was only available because Hnath fought back, Holihan said.
“Although (the case) went cold, it was never forgotten and it was never put aside."Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan
Breisch was arrested this week in Ohio, where he recently moved, Holihan said, thanking the sheriff and prosecutors in Coshocton County, Ohio.
"You don't get a free pass on murder," Holihan said.
There was no indication that Breisch or the victim knew each other, authorities said.
Breisch lived at a community corrections facility in the Allentown area in 1989, according to the district attorney.
‘Never forgotten’
Police made no arrests over the past 35 years, and the case had long gone cold.
“Although it went cold, it was never forgotten and it was never put aside,” Holihan said.
Pennsylvania State Police and the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office continued looking for a break in the case since Hnath’s murder, he said.
That persistence — and major advances in DNA technology — helped unearth the long-buried mystery of what happened at Hnath’s home three and a half decades ago, Holihan said.
Police in recent years started building a family tree for Hnath’s killer based on DNA found in her home in 1989.
After creating a profile, they partnered with Innovative Forensic Investigations to analyze it in various databases looking for a match.
Investigators use only databases that cooperate with law enforcement, including GEDMatch and Family Tree DNA, according to IFI executive Thomas McAndrew, who was integral in the search for Hnath’s killer.
McAndrew, of Emmaus, is a retired Pennsylvania state trooper. He also served as a major case investigator for the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office.
He has described the search for Hnath’s killer as a “puzzle” and said it can be “really painstaking” to sort through thousands of similar DNA profiles.
Innovative Forensic Investigations also is using genetic genealogy to help determine the identity of skeletal remains discovered in Canal Park in Allentown in April 1991.
That is the only unidentified case in Lehigh County.
Holihan credited police in 1989 for collecting and preserving evidence that proved crucial in cracking Hnath's case.
"The remarkable thing about it was there was no concept of being able to utilize touch DNA at the time, and yet they were preserved, they were maintained," Holihan said.
He called the charges against Breisch a "testament" to their work and professionalism since 1989.
