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on a chilly morning four days before
christmas the halls of a lancaster
elementary school buzz with holiday
excitement
but something is wrong
sixth grade teacher twenty-five-year-old
christy morack is missing
christy was never late for school
i thought what you know it was just so
unlike her
so i called her apartment about five
times
nothing i left messages christy where
are you we're worried about you
and that's when i called her mother
my mom was kind of in a panic saying you
know christy didn't show up for work
today which was really odd
we didn't know what to do
christy's family lives two hours away
principal harry goodman volunteers to
check on her himself
so i pull up to her apartment and her
car is iced over
and i knew something was wrong
christy was my middle sister
christine was the kind of person that
she always was smiling always energetic
she was that kind of person also you
know just kind of trying to make
everybody laugh
okay this was christy and i at our
senior prom
in may of 1985
she was a very kind person
she was the kind of person that would
really do anything for you and i know a
lot of people say that but she truly was
i ran outside the door
and
slammed it shut
and i was in shock
i remember i was staggering
going from
apartment to apartment pounding on the
doors
just screaming
and finally somebody let me inside
and
i called 911.
within minutes of harry's frantic 9-1-1
call police and rescue units arrive at
christie's apartment
when the officers entered they did see
the body of a young woman to their
immediate left in the living room
she had some significant facial injuries
there were marks around her neck
so potentially a strangulation was
involved
she's nude from the waist down with the
exception of her socks
and
her clothing that she had from the waist
up were pushed up
to her uh upper chest
any detective would have a logical
conclusion that there's a sexual assault
involved here
it was immediately apparent
that there was a struggle that ensued
right inside the door as evidenced by
the scuff marks both on the floor on the
frame of the door on the door
the struggle continued into the living
room
there was bodily fluid on the carpet so
they cut the carpet out around
that stain and it was eventually sent to
the lab for processing and analysis
police begin canvassing the neighborhood
a woman who lived in the same complex
said that right around 7 15 that morning
she was walking her dog
she saw a light-colored or a
white-colored vehicle parked in the the
overflow parking lot which was directly
across the street from christie's
townhouse
she saw what she described as a white
male with a muscular type build stringy
dark hair
exit that vehicle and walk into the area
of christy's apartment across the street
as she was observing all this her
roommate came out and as they were
engaging in conversation they heard this
really loud kind of high-pitched scream
they weren't sure if it was
christy or not but it came from the
direction of her apartment so the
detectives developed a sketch of the
person that was seen in the area that
morning
christy usually left for work around 7
30 to 7 45 in the morning
this was
a murder that occurred in broad daylight
so this was really a brazen act for
somebody to
enter into the apartment and leave
without being seen
so it was very frustrating for
detectives at the time
the community was on edge
and they wanted to know who had
committed this this heinous act
as the investigation moved forward
there were at least 500 people
interviewed
detectives they were interviewing
everybody imaginable
the detectives also learned about a
couple of peeping tom incidents that
occurred
right there in christie's townhouse
complex
although the peeping tom incidents were
reported and they were investigated that
led nowhere because
the description given was very general
they were leaving no stone unturned
trying to find information to build on
and move forward
just couldn't do it
for the next two years
few leads develop
the days turned into weeks and weeks
turns into months and months turned into
years
by 1995
there were at least 1500 people that
were interviewed
nearly 60 people that had been cleared
as suspects in this case
and then
at this point in time the case
is what investigators would uh say
became cold
i knew that the case could always be
solved because of the dna evidence
and
i knew that technology was changing
i knew that
just getting the additional resources
would be able to help
to solve the case
a second dna test of the sample from
christy's apartment is submitted
reigniting the case i remember seeing
these pictures come out
and
i again had that fresh hope
i had that fresh hope that wow this is
something
even further with technology
and
this could be it
we're hoping that some tips that are
going to be generated are going to
provide us some useful information in
the investigation
well that didn't happen
things just weren't
transpiring the way i thought they were
gonna
uh yeah i got to admit like i said it
was it was it was deflating
but we all just persevered and
the goal was to never give up here
twenty-five years after christy murak's
murder there is new hope thanks to the
genetic genealogy technology used to
capture joseph d'angelo the infamous
golden state killer that's when i got
started
thanks to the original crime scene
investigators we had dna both from
christy herself
and from the carpet that was underneath
her
we were able to upload that to jed match
and then wait for the relatives to
appear
i knew that the suspect
was going to have some latin american
ancestry and specifically puerto rican
because the snapshot phenotype had also
predicted that the suspect was going to
have some latin american ancestry
and so i dug very deep into the local
lancaster newspapers
finally she gets a hit
there was a article that talked about
how he liked to cook puerto rican food
because his biological father was puerto
rican and that was like hallelujah
that was the moment
where i knew
that raymond rowe was very likely
christy merrick's killer
raymond rowe had been living in
the community and had remained in the
community
the entire time since 1992
he
was a dj at house parties which
ultimately led to him becoming quite
successful djing at local nightclubs
the moniker that he used was dj freeze
in later years he became a wedding dj
that had quite a successful business
we were able to
dig deeper into his background and his
criminal history
and
he did not have
any prior felony convictions which
was clear why he had not been in the
codis database
raymond rowe
did strongly resemble the profiles
but in order to make an actual arrest
you have to obtain a dna sample that is
going to
match the dna sample that has been
entered into the codis database
there was surveillance teams established
with the assistance of the pennsylvania
state police
the pennsylvania state police followed
raymond to an event at a local
elementary school
at the closing of that event
he left behind
a water bottle and a cup containing a
piece of chewing gum
they were able to compare it to multiple
swabs that we're taking from
christie's body at autopsy
so there was no question
that raymond rowe was responsible for
this murder
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our working theory is that
he was potentially obsessed with her and
had stalked her and had been the peeping
tom
and had watched her and tracked her
movements uh leading up to this crime
but as far as
what the exact motive was
is anyone's guess here
to avoid the death penalty raymond rowe
pleads guilty to murder in the first
degree rape and burglary he is sentenced
to life without the possibility of
parole plus 60 to 120 years
i think that we definitely were able to
get justice for christy and also for her
family
it's reassuring to know that her killer
will spend the rest of his life in
prison
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