A 25-year-old cold case of the horrifying rape and murder of a young teacher has finally, police say, been solved.
The time between Christy Mirack"s murder and this arrest was lengthier than the time between Mirack"s birth and death.
49-year-old Raymond Rowe, a wedding dj known professionally as "DJ Freez," has been taken into custody.
Police in lancaster, Pennsylvania have announced that they have arrested a suspect on DNA evidence.
The 25-year-old murder case went cold in the "90s after police investigated hundreds of individuals tied to her.
At the time, they found nothing.
Now, police have reportedly said that they had never considered Raymond Rowe as a suspect before.
They were able to identify him after a sample from the murder scene matched a sample in a publicly available geneology database.
The (partial) match came from one of Rowe"s relatives, who uploaded to GEDmatch — the same geneology website that helped to lead to the capture of the Golden State Killer.
Police followed up by surveilling Rowe and obtaining a legal DNA sample for a proper match that was untainted by a third party database.
Christy Mirack was a 25-year-old 6th grade teacher at Rohrerstown Elementary School, a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania school.
On December 21, 1992, after Mirack"s roommate left for work, Mirack herself was still preparing for work.
That, police believe, was when her brutal killer struck.
Because she was wearing her jacket and carrying wrapped Christmas presents, investigators believe that she may have been pushed — or dragged, judging by some of the scuff marks — back into her home.
There, she was sexually assaulted. Mirack"s clothes were found displaced — her underwear, pants, and shoes had been removed.
She had also been beaten so severely that her face was said to be unrecognizable. A wooden cutting board was found near her body.
Mirack"s ultimate cause of death was strangulation.
She was found by the principal at her school when she did not appear for work. He arrived at her home and found the door ajar …. and a grisly, tragic scene within.
Since Mirack"s horrifying murder, police say, Rowe has been enjoying his freedom and his life.
As we mentioned, Rowe is a local wedding dj. According to his website, he has rubbed shoulders with all manners of celebrities, including Paris Hilton and Brooke Hogan.
The site also claims that he has worked all around the world.
He also says that he performs as many as 150 weddings and parties every year as "DJ Freez."
Rowe also had a weekly mixshow on a local radio station.
At 49 now, he would have been just months younger that Mirack at the time of her horrific assault and murder.
In a press conference on Monday, Lancaster District Attorney Craig Stedman expressed that the tragedy of Mirack"s murder was compounded by the long wait for justice.
"The killer was at liberty for this brutal crime longer than Christy Mirack was on this earth alive," Stedman told reports. "His apprehension was long overdue."
Rowe was arrested at his home. He is now being held at Lancaster County Prison,
He is charged with one count of criminal homicide and will not be eligible for bail. He may face the death penalty.
Right now, investigators are looking for connections between Rowe and Marick … though with some sexual assaults and murders, the killer and victim never knew each other prior to the crime.
