- I'm Craig Melvin,
and this is
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
- He said,
"Christy has been murdered."
She was taken so soon--
- Yeah.
- --and so violently.
I couldn't stop shaking.
- A young teacher
leaving for school
murdered before she
could get out the door.
- This was a horrific scene.
- It was a nightmare scene.
She had Christmas presents
that she was taking
to her students
that day.
- I was petrified.
I just thought, who? Why?
- We looked at suspect,
after suspect, after suspect.
- The crime
was a mystery for decades.
- We were still
with no answer.
- I mean,
this poor family.
We thought we might
be able to solve this case.
- Could cutting-edge science
yield a new clue?
- This was a huge lead.
- Absolutely.
This wasn't someone
that they had had a reason
to look at
or talk to before.
- He was here.
He was here the whole time.
- You are literally talking
to Christy's killer.
- Right,
face to face.
- Evil comes in all packages.
- It certainly does.
**
- Hello and welcome to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
Schoolteacher
Christy Mirack treasured
three things
in her life--
her students, her friends,
and her family.
All were stunned
when that life
was brutally taken
one December morning.
The case went cold
for decades
until a breakthrough
in DNA analysis
revealed
the killer's secret.
He had been hiding
in plain sight the whole time.
Here's Andrea Canning
with "Facing the Music."
- They were having
so much fun,
a group of girlfriends hitting
the town one Saturday night,
lost in the music.
- We would go
to different clubs,
and we probably
made ourselves known.
We're here. Come look at us,
in a fun way.
- This was a playground
they knew by heart.
This was the home
where they felt safe.
They were invincible.
- You were in this bubble.
You're 25.
Like, nothin'
is gonna happen to you.
- And then, less than
48 hours later,
one of them was gone,
murdered,
and the killer
was at large.
- And I remember
being paralyzed,
like not being able
to leave the house.
- This not only stole
your friend.
It stole
your innocence.
- Yeah, it so did. It did.
- Mm-hmm.
- It would take another 25 years
to find the killer,
a most unlikely suspect,
always there,
watching them,
daring them.
You are literally talking
to Christy's killer.
- Mm-hmm.
- Right.
And I kept thinking,
after the fact.
I'm like he had to have
known who I was
when I was standing
in front of him.
- Oh, absolutely.
- Mm-hmm.
- He had to have known
who I was.
- Some things
are so life altering
you can't forget them
no matter how hard you try.
For Harry Goodman,
that moment came
the morning
of December 21, 1992.
Harry was the principal
of an elementary school
in Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania.
His star teacher,
25-year-old Christy Mirack,
was late for work.
- Christy was there every
morning right around 8 o'clock.
- When 8:00 became 8:30,
Harry grew uneasy.
- And the kids had started
to come into the classroom.
So, I called her apartment
about five times.
Nothing.
- He contacted
her family
who lived
about a two hour drive north.
Christy's brother,
Vince Mirack.
- We got the phone call
from her school
that she wasn't there.
She didn't show up for work.
You know, was she home
this weekend?
Was she delayed coming back?
Maybe she got stuck in traffic.
I think we were
in panic mode.
The kind of person she was,
we just thought
something was wrong.
It was that gut feeling.
- The family told Harry
they hadn't heard
from Christy that morning.
Harry couldn't wait
any longer.
He knew she lived nearby
with a friend.
So, you decide
to jump in your car
to go see what's going on
with Christy.
- I was prepared
to go down
and, um, change a tire
along the interstate.
- That's what you
were expecting.
- That's what I
was expecting.
- You thought, okay,
her car is broken down.
- Right.
- But it wasn't.
And when he eventually pulled up
to Christy's apartment complex.
- I saw
her car there,
and it was iced over.
- Mm-hmm.
- And then I started
to freak out.
- Her front door
was open.
He went inside and looked
to his left.
He saw her in the living room,
lifeless on the floor.
He ran to call 911.
- I was a total mess.
I mean, I was--
I was in hysterics,
in total shock.
- It-it was pretty apparent
that she had been murdered.
- Craig Stedman
went on to become
the Lancaster County
District Attorney,
but back in the early '90s,
he was a young prosecutor.
This was a horrific scene.
- Yeah.
It's a--
it was a nightmare scene.
Um, you know, not only
the fact that you had
this young-young teacher
who was brutally murdered,
but she had been sexually
assaulted on top of that.
- Did it seem clear, at least
at first glance, how she died?
- No, other than
there had been--
there had been
a brutal struggle.
- The medical examiner
would later determine that,
in addition to being
sexually assaulted,
Christy had been beaten
and strangled to death,
likely that
very morning.
- I mean,
she had her gloves on.
So, most people, when they're
getting ready to go to work,
it's the last thing
you do,
is you put your gloves on
beforehand.
She had Christmas presents
that she was taking
to her students
that day,
um, that were strewn about
as-as part of the struggle.
- So brazen, too,
that this would happen
at that-that hour
of the morning
when people are
going to work,
to school.
- Yeah.
- And those places
are close together,
and there's a lotta cars
around there and people.
- A lotta people around.
The number of witnesses
that could
have been there, I mean,
some-- that person
was very determined
to do whatever
he wanted to do.
- Police collected
crime scene evidence,
including DNA
the killer left behind
during the sexual assault,
and they canvased
the neighborhood for witnesses.
Her brother, Vince, says he
had no idea what was happening
until he arrived
at the police station.
- The session
was started with, you know,
"There was an accident.
She passed away."
And, of course, obviously,
we said, "What happened?"
And that's when they told us.
She was murdered.
- Christy's roommate, Mary,
got a call from police
asking to meet back
at the apartment,
something about Christy
being in trouble.
When she arrived,
a detective approached her.
- And he brought me
into his car, and he said,
um, "Christy has been murdered."
And I just remember,
like-like, being doubled over
just trying to stop the shaking.
- Mary explained that she
left the apartment
around 7:00
that morning.
Christy was still
getting ready for work.
- I was driving away,
and I'm like,
"Oh, I should go back
and get my lunch," and I'm like,
"Oh, I'm already this far.
I'm just gonna keep going."
- That meant
Christy was murdered
sometime between 7
and just after 9 that morning
when Harry Goodman
found her.
Investigators asked Mary to do
a walkthrough of the apartment.
Right away, she saw scuff marks
on and near the front door.
- Uh, there's somethin'
from his shoes or her shoes.
She dug in,
is-is-is what I thought.
She, like, just dug in.
Like, he was drag--
like she was dragged.
And then there was just a lot--
there's a lot of blood
on the carpet.
- And you had to see that.
- Yeah.
- Just has to be
so traumatizing.
- Yeah, it was.
- Investigators believed Christy
opened the door to leave
only to have the killer
drag her back in.
- I think she was overpowered
pretty quickly.
I mean, where she was murdered
was not very far away from--
at all from--
from the entry point.
- Did it appear that it had
all kind of taken place
in one area
of the apartment?
- Yeah, right from the foyer
in-into the--
into the, uh, living room.
Those were the rooms that-that--
where it seemed like
the struggle had taken place.
- Something else caught
the detective's attention,
Mary's final conversation
with Christy.
- Before I left,
I went and said,
"Hey, we're gonna
meet up later,"
and she sounded distant,
and I said, "Are you okay?"
And I said-- and she's like,
"No, I'm fine."
So, then
I just went to work.
- What do you think it was?
- I don't know.
I don't know if she was
just thinking about the day
or just she
was preoccupied.
- Christy had
something on her mind
and only moments
to live.
Investigators had to find out
if the two were connected.
- Did Christy sense
she was in danger,
and did she know
her attacker?
Detectives dove
into the young teacher's
personal life
for answers.
Clues to a mystery,
a boyfriend.
- She had told me
that things were ending.
- And a mysterious visitor
at Christy's school.
- I thought
I-I may have just been
face to face
with the killer.
**
- Lancaster County
is Pennsylvania Amish Country,
a place where old ways
and modern suburban sprawl meet.
The brutal murder
of a schoolteacher
just before Christmas, 1992,
upset that sense of peace.
- A lot of people
in Lancaster County,
particularly back then, they
just didn't lock their doors.
They didn't lock their cars.
A very trusting community.
- And yet D.A. Craig Stedman
says Christy Mirack's killing
didn't have the mark
of a stranger.
- 7-7:30 in the morning,
a home invasion sexual assault--
it would be highly unusual
for something like that
to take place
at that time of day
in someone's apartment
just at random.
- Police wanted to know
if Christy had any enemies.
The answer was no.
Her brother, Vince, says
his sister had tons of friends.
She was kind,
caring, and focused.
From the time
she was a little girl,
she wanted
to be a teacher.
- We had a little thing
set up in our-in our garage
where she was
the schoolteacher.
Now, it's the summer,
and kids wanna go out and play,
and my sister is pullin'
them in to teach them.
- When she wasn't
playing school,
she was goofing around
like a normal kid.
- You can ask anybody,
and they'll tell you
the same thing.
She always was
laughin', smilin',
um, just a good-good, um--
having a good time.
- After high school,
she took her work-play ethic
to Millersville University
in Lancaster
where she met her other family.
Were you all like sisters?
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
- Christy's circle included
that roommate, Mary Franciscus,
Chris Walter, Lisa Bailey,
and Marianne Taylor.
- We've shared clothes.
We've shared hair products.
We share everything.
- Everything.
- Yeah.
- I don't think
there's anything about
each other that we don't know,
and that's
such a rare friendship.
- And when it came
to Christy, her friends knew
she could hold her own,
especially when they'd go out.
- If someone came up,
and she wasn't interested,
she had no problem
telling people,
"Hit the road.
I'm not interested."
- She was also protective
of her friends.
When they graduated,
a few of them set up house
in that apartment complex just
outside downtown Lancaster.
- Christy was always
a very safe person.
Like, lock your doors.
Always leave with a buddy.
- And we did feel safe.
There was no time--
- Mm-hmm.
It was in the middle of nowhere.
I mean, our backyard
was an Amish farm.
- Mm-hmm.
- It was a dairy farm.
- By then, Christy
had already landed
her dream job
as a teacher.
Here she is leading
a 6th grade class in science.
- These are the ways we would
classify any type of animal.
- Harry Goodman saw
something special in her.
- She wasn't satisfied with
just being a good teacher.
She wanted to be
a great teacher.
- What do you think
it was about Christy's
ability to connect
with the kids?
- She was creative, and she
had the kids motivated.
They were captivated.
Some people would drag
themselves into work.
Christy didn't
look at it as work.
- If only you
could bottle that.
- Oh, my gosh.
- And sell it.
- Yeah.
Tell me.
- But investigators did find
one loose thread in her life.
- Mm-hmm.
- She loved him,
um, so loyal to him.
- Mm-hmm.
- Christy had fallen for a man
who went by the nickname Dagger.
He wasn't exactly
her friends' idea of a catch.
Christy was 25, and he was not.
- We-- he was old.
I remember thinking
how old he was.
[laughing] Uh, because
he was 20 years older.
- Yeah.
- Almost twice Christy's age
but he had a good job
as president of the local
Teamsters, and he was generous.
- I think she
felt cared for.
I don't even know exactly how,
whether that was financially
or what, but I think
she felt cared for.
- Christy didn't divulge
much about her boyfriend
or his past,
but her friends could tell
he was in no rush
to the altar.
They thought that bothered
Christy, especially
as the friends started
moving out and getting married.
- Maybe having just been to
Chris' wedding that September--
I'm thinking maybe that's--
that she was realizing
that's the life
I deserve, too.
- Mm-hmm.
- Right.
- Two days before she
was killed, that Saturday,
Christy had come
to a decision.
- She had told me
that things were ending
with Dagger, and she was
finally ready to move on.
- This was a big deal
because she
had been with him for years,
at this point.
- Mm-hmm.
- Years, mm-hmm.
She looked happy,
and we saw Christy back,
bubbly, happy, ready
to get out there and live.
- And that night, she did.
The friends went out
downtown hitting the clubs.
Now, police had to consider
whether Christy
told Dagger
she wanted to break up.
If so,
had he taken it badly?
Was that on Christy's mind
the morning she was murdered,
or had Christy
angered someone else
from that Saturday night?
Police wanted to know more.
- Where did you eat?
Where did you go dancing?
Where did you go after that?
Who was there?
- Then something bizarre.
The day after Christy's murder,
a man walked
into her school.
He clearly didn't
belong there.
- I approached him and
said, uh, "May I help you?"
- Bob Wildasin was an assistant
school superintendent.
- He said, "Oh, I'm just here
to see Christy Mirack."
I said, "Well, unfortunately,
you're gonna have to leave.
Uh, Christy,
uh, has passed."
- The mysterious visitor
said he hadn't heard the news.
He claimed he was Christy's
friend. Then he left.
- It was hard
to believe that anyone
in Lancaster County
would not have heard about it.
- Bob Wildasin's mind raced.
He'd heard stories
of investigations
where the criminal
seemed eager to catch
the attention of police.
- Immediately after that,
is when I called the police.
I thought I-I may have just been
face to face with the killer.
- Whoever that mystery man
was, police knew
they had to find him,
immediately.
- Coming up.
A surprise was in store
about that surprise visitor.
- It was something
to do with him.
- There was no other
logical explanation.
- We were terrified.
**
- Bob Wildasin was one
of Christy's colleagues.
He was certain the man
who'd shown up at school
a day after the murder
claiming to be her friend
had instead
been her killer.
- I was convinced.
In fact, I said,
"We're gonna get the guy
who did this, right now, today."
- He called police,
told them the story,
and gave
them the man's name.
Turned out it was
no random visitor at all.
It was none other than Dagger,
Christy's longtime boyfriend.
Police brought him
in for questioning.
They found out Dagger
had a secret. He had a wife.
- He was married, so he was
pretty high on the suspect list.
And I can tell you,
just even talking
to the investigators,
they were absolutely convinced,
um, that, you know,
that he-- this was him.
- But Dagger
insisted it wasn't.
He said when Christy died,
he was hundreds of miles away
in Virginia where he'd
recently moved with his wife.
Christy's friends
were stunned.
She never mentioned
Dagger was married.
They weren't sure
she even knew.
Now, they had to wonder if her
decision to break things off
with him two days before
her death had doomed her.
He might not have liked that.
- Oh, she was, I mean,
she was devoted to him.
- Mm-hmm.
- And I'm sure that would be
a loss for him to not
have that in his life anymore.
- Mm-hmm.
- And it was years.
I mean, you don't
just cut that tie
and have it not mean anything.
- Right, right.
- And when they heard
he'd shown up
at Christy's school,
their suspicions grew.
- We were all thinking he
was trying to establish
some kind of alibi or to show
that he had no involvement.
Look how much I love her.
I'm ready to make it public.
- And it was so odd because
it-it was everywhere
that she
had been murdered.
I mean, everywhere in Lancaster.
- Mm-hmm.
- So, I just never understood
how he didn't know,
and he-- it was
very uncharacteristic of him
to show up at the school.
I think it would
have been shocking
to her to see him
come in that building.
Like, it would have
been unnerving for her
to have her worlds
collide like that.
- But the idea
that Dagger did it fell apart.
Police confirmed
his alibi.
He had been in Virginia at
the time of the murder.
They also tested his DNA
against the DNA
the killer left during
the sexual assault.
- He was eliminated
through alibi,
as well
as scientifically.
- Still, her friends
wondered if he might
have been involved
in Christy's death somehow.
To them, Dagger had
always been a man of mystery.
He didn't talk
about his life or work.
Their imaginations ran wild.
- He either hired a hitman.
- Right.
- [both] Mm-hmm.
- Or it was revenge.
- It was something
to do with him.
- Mm-hmm.
- It was somebody
that wanted to get back
at him for whatever reason.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
There was no other logical
explanation for us at the time.
- Mm-hmm.
- Uh-uh.
We were terrified.
- But investigators
didn't buy the hitman angle.
- Professional hitmen
do not usually get into
hand to hand physical combat
with their victim,
uh, and they
certainly don't leave,
um, multiple DNA
samples, uh, behind.
You wouldn't think
that anyone would do it
at 7:15 in the morning
in her apartment.
There'd be way better
ways to do this.
It's just not consistent
with a professional type hit.
- So, police needed to
consider other men
Christy might have crossed.
Her friends
did mention one incident
from that
Saturday night.
They ran into someone who dated
another one of their friends.
- He was not a good guy,
and we called him out on it.
- They believed the man had
been abusive to their friend--
had even
killed her dog.
- I think we yelled,
"Puppy killer."
- "Puppy killer."
- Oh, my gosh, how did he react?
- He was scary.
- Yeah. He was a sociopath.
- Big, scary.
- Yeah. Mm-hmm.
- So, did you tell the police
about him, as well?
- Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I mean,
talk about a motive.
- Yeah.
- Yes.
- That's something we latched
onto because we thought
Christy angered him
by calling him
this name
in a very public place.
- Police looked into it
but eventually cleared him, too.
In the meantime,
her friends kept trying
to help
with the investigation.
- I mean, they had
her photo albums,
and we would go through all
the guys in the photo album
and give them their names.
- Yeah.
- As it happened, police
were already interested
in someone else.
His connection to Christy
was more recent and compelling
than those old photos,
and he'd practically
driven himself
into the heart
of the case.
- Coming up.
- What?
They think I did this.
- A principal
under the microscope.
- What's their tone?
What kind of questions
are they asking you?
- Extremely accusatory--
first question,
did you murder Christy Mirack?
**
Welcome back to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
I'm Craig Melvin.
Just days after ending
a long-term relationship,
schoolteacher
Christy Mirack
was found strangled
and beaten to death.
Her ex-lover, Dagger,
was high on the suspect list,
but his alibi
checked out.
Now, detectives were
about to turn up the heat
on someone else you
might not expect.
Once again, here's Andrea
Canning with "Facing the Music."
- After Christy Mirack's murder,
her principal, Harry Goodman,
says he got a phone call to come
down to the police station.
- And they said,
"We wanna talk to you
and ask you questions
about Christy's teaching
and those kinda--"
So, I walk in.
- He thought they would ask
routine questions
about Christy's background.
He was wrong.
- I walk in the door,
and they start to
fingerprint me.
I'm thinking, what?
They think I did this.
I'm mourning the loss of
our teacher and our friend,
and, all of the sudden,
I'm being interrogated.
- Why do you think
they zeroed in on you?
- I found her.
- And that's it?
- Yeah.
- That one moment in time is--
- That one thing--
I found her.
- Actually, there was
a bit more.
The D.A. said investigators
found Harry's drive
to check on his employee
that morning very strange.
A lot of bosses,
when someone is only,
you know, 30-40 minutes late,
they don't jump in their car,
you know, to go-- to go
see if someone is okay.
Why did you feel the need
to-to do that?
- That's just who I am.
I-I knew something
was wrong.
I thought Christy
might need help.
- He says police asked
where he'd been
in the hours
before her death.
Harry recalled
going to the gym,
coming home to change,
and heading back out to work.
What's their tone?
What kind of questions
are they asking you?
- Extremely accusatory--
you know,
why would you
have hired her?
What was it about her
that you like so much?
I mean, they were coming
at me with all ends.
- Detectives asked
if he would take a polygraph.
- I'm thinking I've
got nothing to hide.
Hook me up.
First question,
did you murder Christy Mirack?
- Harry told them no.
After answering
all their questions,
he says he passed
the polygraph.
They later confirmed
his alibi,
and his DNA
was not a match,
but Harry knew some people
still suspected him.
- My teachers would
always come up to me.
"Harry, you shoulda heard
what so and so was saying."
And I said,
"Don't tell me.
I don't wanna know."
- Police began looking
elsewhere.
They even considered
the possibility that Christy
might not have known
her killer.
That's when her friends
recalled something
that had happened months
earlier at the apartment.
Back then,
they brushed it off.
Now, they wondered.
You have a bizarre incident
one night where Dagger
comes over and sees
somebody in the bushes.
They went after
the stranger.
- We immediately jumped up
and started screaming at him,
and we chased him down here
and all the way down there.
- Mm-hmm.
- And what gave
you the courage
to go after
this person?
- 'Cause he had
violated us.
He was peaking
in our window.
- But they never got
a good look at the guy.
That wasn't much help
to police.
Investigators needed to focus
on the solid leads
they did have.
Neighbors told them
they'd spotted a white car
outside Christy's apartment
just before the murder.
- There were four, five,
or six people that saw,
at some point that morning,
a white car
driving around
that complex.
- Some thought it was
a Toyota Celica like this one,
but one witness, who saw
a man get out of the car
near the apartment
that morning, described
a different make and model,
a Dodge Daytona.
Police decided to focus
on that type of car.
- So, they took
that information,
and then they put it
in the registry
for-for Pennsylvania
for anyone that had
a-a similar type vehicle.
- But her friends
didn't know anyone
who drove
that kind of Dodge.
They started to worry
the killer, whoever he was,
might come back
for one of them.
- I remember going
to go to work,
and I saw a car that was meeting
the description of the car
that they were looking for,
being paralyzed,
like not being able
to leave the house
'cause he's waiting for me.
- Mm-hmm.
- I remember writing
their license plate number down
and putting it in my pocket,
so when they found my body,
they would have
this clue.
- This has to strike fear
in-into people
when-when a young girl
like that is brutally murdered,
and-and the person
who did it is at large.
- Was out there.
That person was out
there this whole time.
- The investigation
dragged on.
Weeks became months
then years.
Still, police believed
that white car and the DNA
from the crime scene would lead
them to Christy's killer.
Do you remember how many
people were tested
for their DNA?
- Well, it was
definitely dozens.
Um, we looked at suspect
after suspect after suspect.
As time went on,
we started just reaching out
to just, well, could it be
this person?
Could it be
this person?
- And when the FBI created
a national DNA database,
CODIS, investigators on
Christy's case
uploaded a sample
from the crime scene.
It didn't match the DNA
of anyone in the system.
The waiting was especially
hard for Christy's mother.
A decade after the murder,
she died not knowing
who killed
her daughter.
- I promised her
that I wouldn't give up,
you know...
'Cause I knew it was--
you know, she was leaving,
and we were still
with no answer.
- Vince took up the cause,
staying in touch with police,
even putting up a billboard,
looking for any new leads,
but nothing.
- Just hitting this dead end
all the time was just--
it was just extremely
frustrating for us
as a family.
- But a breakthrough
was coming,
a new way to analyze
DNA and catch criminals,
a new way to find
Christy's killer.
- Coming up.
- So, what we're looking for,
is the pieces of the DNA
for that person's eye color,
their hair color,
their face shape.
- Could a DNA breakthrough
break the stalemate
in Christy's case?
- He could look
a lot like this.
- Right.
**
- Time seems to pass
more slowly here
in the rolling farmlands of
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
But for Christy Mirack's
loved ones,
it felt like time
had stopped altogether.
Nearly 25 years had gone by
since her death,
and investigators were no closer
to catching her killer.
It must have bothered you
knowing that whoever did this
was getting
away with it.
- Yeah.
- Right.
Yep.
- Oh, yeah.
- Absolutely.
- They were still out
walking around.
- Mm-hmm.
Where was he?
I think there were times
where we thought this person
could be dead
by now.
- Right.
- Then we'll
really never know.
- Right.
- Still, they wanted to know,
needed to know,
who her killer was.
They just had to wait
a little longer.
- Some things in-in
law enforcement
are-are just through
hard work and dedication.
Some things are
just through coincidence
and a little bit
of luck.
- In 2016, the D.A.'s office
heard about a new tool
that uses DNA to solve
cold cases.
Genetic phenotyping allows
scientists to create
a composite of a suspect
using the DNA
left at a crime scene.
- So, we're reading
the information
out of that DNA that determines
what that person looked like.
- Ellen Greytak is
Director of Bioinformatics
at a company called Parabon,
which has helped pioneer
the use of
DNA phenotyping.
- So, that DNA
built that person,
and that's what we're
looking for,
is the pieces of the DNA
that coded for
that person's eye color,
their hair color,
their face shape,
and then we can tell that
to the detectives.
- This isn't the first time
phenotyping has come up
in one of our stories.
Previously, Parabon created
an image from my DNA
to show how it works.
Why am I anxious,
right now?
What?
Like, I feel like
I'm the criminal or something.
[laughing]
Let's see it.
- All right.
Uh, okay.
- Oh, wow.
I felt like, after I got
my composite sketch
from Parabon, that if I had of
committed a crime
and left my DNA, I would have
been completely busted.
- Yeah, absolutely.
You would have been right
at the top of that suspect list.
- And now,
the Lancaster D.A.
hoped the company could
help with Christy's case.
They analyzed the DNA
left by her killer,
trait by trait,
hair and eye color,
facial structure,
even ancestry.
- We found that he was
partially of European descent
but also partially
of Latino descent.
So, he was a mix
of those two ancestries.
- They came up with
three composites to reflect
how he might have aged
over the years.
He could look
a lot like this.
- Right.
This may have been
approximately
what he looked like
when the crime was committed.
- The D.A. asked
Christy's family and friends
to take a look,
but when they actually
saw the composite.
- I didn't see anyone I knew,
and I'm like this is a stranger.
- In October 2017, the D.A.
made the composites public
during a press conference.
Maybe someone else
would recognize the person
in those images.
- There will be no tip that's
gonna be a waste of our time.
We got a lotta calls.
Some of them seemed
hopeful, at first,
uh, but ultimately led to--
led to nothing.
- Oh, that's so frustrating.
- Yeah.
This was kind of,
we had felt like,
our last shot, our last thing
that-that we could do.
- The composite didn't work,
but it would not be
their last shot.
That's because investigators
working on an unrelated crime
in California
came upon another way
of solving cold cases.
- Police arresting a man
they believe is the so-called
Golden State killer
discovered using DNA.
- California detectives
found their suspect
after uploading DNA from
a crime scene to a database
used by thousands looking
for lost relatives.
Their search turned up
people whose DNA
had distant matches
to the killer.
From there, investigators
constructed a family tree
and narrowed it down
to their man.
- When you read about it,
and you see it,
you just say to yourself, well,
why didn't I think about this?
I mean, it's tot--
completely brilliant.
- Parabon's genetic
genealogists
did the same thing
in the hunt for the man
who murdered Christy.
Sure enough, they found
relatives who shared DNA
with her killer.
- In a couple of days,
they're able to take
these few people who share DNA
with our unknown killer
and build to who that person
could have been.
- Remember they knew
the killer had
European and Latino
ancestry.
One man in the family
tree stood out.
He matched the ancestry
and lived near Christy
when she was murdered,
but that didn't mean
investigators in Lancaster
could make an arrest.
- We don't arrest people
on what genetic database
is saying to us.
We needed to get his sample,
and we needed to have it
confirmed through a-a--
the-the state police crime lab.
- So, they staked him out,
hoping he'd leave behind
something with his
DNA on it.
- We had a couple undercover
guys watch him all day long
to try to see him
abandon something.
He abandoned nothing.
He took everything with him.
We completely struck out.
- They tried again.
State troopers eventually
followed the man to,
of all things, an event
at a public school.
This time, success.
- An undercover female,
uh, trooper befriended him,
and she was able to get-get
some things directly from him.
- What did she get?
- Uh, she was able to get
a water bottle and gum
that he had used.
- The state crime lab compared
the DNA from those samples
to the DNA from the crime scene.
They matched.
Now, investigators were
confident they had their man
standing right where
they least expected him,
in the shadows
of the dance floor.
- Coming up...
- He slept
on my bed that night.
You just don't know
what to think.
- Who was the man
who murdered Christy?
His stunning identity
revealed at last.
- You are literally talking
to Christy's killer.
- Right,
face to face.
**
Welcome back.
Who killed Christy Mirack?
The deadly secret baffled
investigators for decades.
Then a breakthrough.
Using her killer's DNA,
they created a family tree,
singled out a potential suspect,
and, through
some amazing policework,
connected him
to the crime.
If detectives thought
his identity was a bombshell,
they'd need to brace for impact
because there were two surprises
in store.
Here's Andrea Canning
with the conclusion
of "Facing the Music."
- Detectives believed
they'd finally found
Christy Mirack's killer.
They matched
his DNA to the crime,
and they were ready
to arrest him until...
You realize he's not even home.
He's on vacation.
- We found out that he
was actually on a trip
across America with his wife
and daughter.
- Now, D.A. Craig Stedman had
an agonizing decision to make.
- Do we arrest him
out there and not have
our investigators try
to interview him?
Do we risk the safety of his
new wife and adopted daughter?
- So,
what do you do?
- Well, so, I made
the decision to wait.
- Thankfully, their man
returned to Lancaster,
and, on an early
summer day in 2018,
they arrested him
outside his house.
What was his reaction?
- He kind of was
acting pretty calm.
"Oh, well, this is, you know,
kind of a joke, right?"
And they kept
telling him, uh, "No.
"You're arrested
for criminal homicide
"of Christy Mirack."
- He denies it.
- He denied it.
He denied
ever knowing her.
Today, we are
announcing the arrest
of Raymond Charles Rowe
for the murder
of Christy Mirack
from December 21, 1992.
- Raymond Rowe-- who was he?
- Never heard of the guy.
I don't know who
this person is.
- Turned out many people knew
the accused by a different name.
DJ Freez.
- All right,
ladies and gentlemen,
we have one more show.
- Christy's friends
were floored.
- He was the local DJ
everyone-everyone wanted.
He was the guy who went
to the same church as me.
- He had been raised
in Lancaster,
and he had essentially stayed
here for his life.
- Around the time
of Christy murder,
Rowe worked
a warehouse job by day
and performed
in clubs at night.
Aside from a brush
with the law in 2001,
disorderly conduct
and resisting arrest,
he stayed out of trouble.
Over the years,
he married four times
and built
a name for himself as a DJ.
- A lot of our officers
knew who he was.
A lot of our officers had been
at events that he had been at.
- He was living
in plain sight.
- He was living
in plain sight.
He had been living
in plain sight.
He never hid it.
- Now, he was
charged with murder.
Investigators quickly
connected him
to another key piece
of evidence, that white car.
In 1992, Rowe owned
a Toyota Celica similar to this
that some of Christy's
neighbors had mentioned,
not the Dodge Daytona
police focused on.
- I had sitting in my office
a pile about this big
of all the Dodge Daytonas
that were registered
in Pennsylvania
back at that time.
- But not the Celica?
- Not the Celica.
- Why not go through
both in the database?
- I do not have
an answer for you on that.
I think
that they felt like,
um, based on-on,
uh, the information they had,
that the Dodge Daytona
was the way to go.
- Investigators now believed
Rowe drove that car
past Christy's
doorstep often.
- We discovered that he worked
very, very close proximity
to where
Christy's apartment was.
- Stedman says it's
even possible Rowe
was the peeping Tom
that Christy's friends chased
just months before her murder.
The what if haunts them.
- The thing that bothers me
is if it would have--
like, what if
it was him?
If I would have
caught him, then.
- It gets you upset, like,
just thinking
about it now.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Investigators also knew
that Rowe might have
spotted Christy in one
of the downtown clubs,
like that Saturday
before her death.
Was he at the club
that weekend,
one of the places
you went to?
- We don't know.
We didn't know him.
He-he didn't
stand out,
if he was there.
- Mm-hmm.
- And yet, the D.A. thinks
it's likely the two met.
- I think it was targeted.
I think that she had encountered
him at some event beforehand,
my guess is had spurned him,
and he saw her out there
at that apartment,
at some point.
- The DJ's connection
to Christy seemed tenuous,
but Stedman says the DNA
proved Rowe killed her.
In fact, the odds
of the killer being
anyone other than him
on the entire planet
weren't just one
in a million.
- Nonillion, octillion, like,
a thousand trillion-trillion,
things like this-- I-I--
you can't even actually conceive
of a number with 27 zeroes
or 30 zeroes,
which is what
we ended up getting.
- It's remarkable.
- Uh, it-- I-I just have--
I've never heard
of a case with this much.
- And remember that composite
from the killer's DNA?
Turns out it was
a pretty good match to Rowe.
Even then, it was hard
for some in Lancaster
to believe Rowe could
commit such a horrible crime,
especially this woman.
- He was the life of the party.
- Her name
is Monica Whalen.
She was engaged to Rowe
when Christy was killed.
This was the first time
she publicly talked
about their relationship.
You're learning
that they believe
he brutally murdered a woman,
sexually assaulted her,
and then came home to you.
- Yes.
- How do you process that?
- You-you just don't
know what to think.
I mean, he slept
on my bed that night.
You know, we had Christmas
four days later,
and we got married
months later.
- And you're none the wiser.
- No.
- But Monica does remember
Christy's murder
being in the news and talking
to Rowe about it.
He was concerned about
your safety after this murder?
- Yeah.
- It's outrageous to think that
he's advising you on your safety
and worrying about you
when he was the killer.
- Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it is surprising.
- The couple divorced
almost six years later.
There must also
be a part of you is,
like, what didn't I see?
- Yeah, there was that.
There was, um, it could
have been me.
You know, why wasn't it me?
Why did she have to die?
- Rowe was now facing trial
and, if convicted,
the death penalty,
but it didn't come to that.
In January 2019, he pleaded
guilty to the murder
and rape of Christy Mirack
in exchange for a life sentence.
Citing newly
discovered evidence,
he has since petitioned
the court to withdraw
his guilty plea
and go to trial.
As for Christy's family,
they felt relieved
but also cheated.
- He's been doin' what he wanted
to do for the last 26 years,
and she's been dead
for the last 26-plus years,
and I still think
he got off pretty easy.
- Christy's friends
are angry that Rowe
was able to live
among them for so long,
never hinting
at what he'd done.
- He was the guy I talked
to when my daughter
was planning her wedding.
- No.
- At a wedding expo,
face to face, spoke to him.
- Oh, my gosh, you are literally
talking to Christy's killer.
- Mm-hmm.
- Right,
and I kept thinking,
after the fact.
I'm like, he had
to have known
who I was when I was
standing in front of him.
- Mm-hmm.
- Oh, absolutely.
- He had to have known
who I was.
- Now, she'd like
to have one more chance
to meet him
face to face.
- How did you know her,
and why did do you do this?
- I still want
to drive to the prison
and see if he'll let me in.
I just wanna ask him.
I just don't understand
why he did this.
- And they may never know.
Neither Rowe
nor his lawyers
responded to "Dateline's"
request for comment.
Through it all, this circle
of friends has stayed bonded.
They thank
Christy for that.
- I'd like to think Christy
has kept us together.
- You almost feel guilty
that we were able to get married
and have kids.
- Yeah.
- And we still think
about Christy,
like, that she never got
to have that.
- She was a huge light
in this world
that was just
taken way too soon,
just way too soon.
- Mm-hmm.
That's all for this edition of
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
I'm Craig Melvin.
Thank you for watching.