According to the police, a guy from Ohio has been taken into custody and charged with a crime related to his suspected involvement in the murder of an elderly lady from Pennsylvania in 1989.
Michael Breisch, 65, has been charged with homicide in connection with the loss of Rose Hnath, 78 years old, which occurred on January 21, 1989 in North Whitehall Township, according to the announcement made by the District Attorney of Lehigh County, Gavin Holihan, during a news conference on Thursday, February 16, 2019.
Over three decades ago, Hnath was murdered in her own house by being “stabbed and bludgeoned” to loss. It was found that blunt force trauma and sharp force injuries were the causes of her loss at the time, according to Holihan, who shared video from the press conference with media, including NBC10 Philadelphia, who carried the same information.
Despite the fact that PEOPLE requested further information, a spokesman for the office did not immediately reply to the inquiry.
Several district attorneys had been working on the case over the course of several decades until Holihan made the announcement that Breisch had been arrested in Ohio. He said that Breisch is now being detained without bond in the Lehigh County Jail.
Regarding the arrest, the District Attorney made reference to “DNA evidence that was collected and preserved” and said that technical advancements that were not accessible in the “20th century” contributed to the process. In addition, he explicitly acknowledged the contributions that investigator Joseph Vasquez had made to the investigation, given that he had been engaged from the very beginning.
It was revealed by Holihan that a knife and a pellet gun, which were discovered “at the scene of the crime and across the street,” were kept “in a condition sufficient enough to use [as] evidence decades later.”
The “professionalism” of the state police in 1989 and the “perseverance” of the prosecutors in the years that followed were both met with praise from him.
It was stated by CBS News that the victim was a widow who lived alone at the time of her murder. The fact that she did not go to church led to her body being discovered by her family. In addition to this, they found out that her house had been violated.
Hnath was claimed to have “defensive injuries,” according to Holihan, which suggested that her perpetrator “continued the assault even after she fought back.”
The information that was provided by CBS News indicates that Breisch, who was thirty years old at the time, was residing in the Lehigh Valley at a community correctional center.
“Part of the reason for the violence involved and the reason some of the evidence recovered was able to be maintained was the fact that she fought back,” Holihan said to reporters.
There are cases that investigators don’t forget about, and you’re looking at them. A subsequent statement made by him remarked, “And you do not get a free pass on murder.” Case files, the detective’s memories, and the cases themselves are all things that continue to exist after they have been closed. The fact that these are families who have suffered the loss of a loved one is not lost on our contemporary office. Regardless of how long ago it occurred, it is irrelevant… It was never forgotten, and it was never put to the side, despite the fact that it had become chilly.
According to Holihan, the preliminary hearing for Breisch is already slated to take place on May 21.
According to The Morning Call, Breisch had previously been charged with evading capture and possessing drugs in the year 1989. According to the court records, he had served a sentence of six months for these offenses at the time. Additionally, according to the publication, he was taken into custody in 1993 for the crime of burglary in Pike County.
Additional charges of aggravated assault, burglary, and robbery have been brought against him, according to The Morning Call. In spite of the fact that Hnath’s residence had been broken into many weeks previously, Breisch is only being charged with the burglary occurring on the day that the murder occurred.
It has been said by the District Attorney that the family of the victim is “gratified and relieved that there has been an arrest made.”