For nearly 58 years, the rape and murder of a 9-year-old Pennsylvania girl walking to school eluded investigators. But on Thursday, authorities announced they’ve finally caught her killer.
Forte’s body was exhumed in January and his DNA was found to be a match to DNA on the little girl’s jacket on Feb. 3—years after her body was discovered beaten and strangled in a strip mine, police said. “What happened to her ushered in a change in this community. Whether you like it or not, the way you lived changed, after March 18, 1964 in Hazleton,” he said.
While exploring family names linked to the match, police said they were led to a New Jersey State Police captain who connected investigators with a family member who kept records of their ancestry. At the beginning, Schubert said, the highest DNA match to Chivarella’s assailant in public DNA databases was “very, very low,”—equalling about 53 centimorgans—which are units used to measure genetic linkages.