US/PA/Allentown - It’s a case of murder in Berks County that went cold more than 25 years ago. Now new evidence linking a serial killer to the 1979 murder of Myrtle Rupp may finally give family members the closure that has eluded them for nearly 3 decades. WFMZ’s Joel D. Smith has the story.
It answers the question of who and why. When you don’t know, you don’t know if you’re passing that person on the street, if they’re local. >> Reporter David Rupp says he’s wondered for 28 years who killed his aunt, Mrytle Rupp. She was found naked and strangled to death inside her home, in Temple in 1979. Leads have been scarce since then, but DNA evidence from the scene was tested within the last year, and cross-referenced with a national database, and now police say there’s a match. >> Det. Pollock, Jr. We got a presumptive positive DNA result on the suspect Timothy Kracjir who is currently incarcerated in Illinois for several rapes and homicides in that area as well.
Police say Kracjir used to live in the Lehigh Valley and admits to killing 9 people in the 70′s and 80′s, including 5 women in Missouri. State Police from Reading went to Illinois Sunday to talk to Krajcir and get a new DNA sample before possibly charging him with murder. >> David Rupp Just relief, that all the rumors that circulated at the time of her death were unfounded, that it wasn’t someone local, it wasn’t somebody she knew.
Kracjir was incarcerated in Lehigh County prison in the mid 80′s for sexual assault, and he was already in prison in Missouri when he admitted to the murders there. David Rupp says more prison time is not the answer.
>> David Rupp I do feel a lot of contempt for the killer, I know people don’t believe in the death penalty, but I think any life he has left should be taken from him, like he took my aunt’s. The only thing he’s done with his life is kill people. >> Reporter State Police investigators are expected back Friday with more details of their interview with Kracjir…. including possible charges.