Photo: Myspace; Handout
In court Tuesday, Raymond Rowe, 50, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Christy Mirack, online court records show.
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
A beloved sixth-grade teacher at Rohrerstown Elementary School, Mirack was found dead in her home on Dec. 21, 1992.
She was strangled to death with her own sweater, authorities say, after being beaten beyond recognition and sexually assaulted.
Police found DNA from her assailant at the crime scene but for decades could not find a match.
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That changed when investigators tapped into a database on the genealogy website GEDmatch — the same publicly accessible site that helped capture the suspect in theGolden State Killercase involving a man suspected of dozens of killings and rapes in California in the 1970s and ’80s.
Rowe’s half-sister had at one time uploaded her DNA to the site, which linked her to the DNA sample found at the scene, which led them to focus on Rowe, say authorities.
In May 2018, undercover investigators collected used chewing gum and a water bottle Rowe used while working as a DJ at an event at a school, Stedman said at the time. Police concluded the DNA found in the gum and bottle matched the DNA taken from the scene, he said.
Rowe was arrested on June 25, 2018, at his home in Lancaster County.
Rowe apologized to the family in court, the Associated Press reports.
During the hearing, Mirack’s brother spoke directly to Rowe, saying, “If not for the grace of modern technology and divine intervention, you probably would have stayed in Lancaster and basked in your fame,”The New York Timesreports.
The murder stole so much from his family, he said. “But most of all you took our Christy.“I can only hope that the remainder of your life is as painful to you as the last 26 years have been to my family,” he said.
source: people.com
