Sabrina Kahler Case: Murder Charge Filed 24 Years After Disappearance, Search for Body Continues
Pennsylvania authorities say a break in a long-dormant Erie County cold case has led to a murder charge in the 2002 disappearance of Sabrina Kahler — but the search for the 20-year-old's remains is still underway.
Kahler was last seen on June 24, 2002, when David Heck, the cousin of her boyfriend, Christopher Lee, showed up unannounced at her Pennsylvania home and asked her to go swimming, investigators said. She agreed, and the two headed to Eagley Park, a popular lakefront hangout about 75 miles northeast of Cleveland near the state border.
Once they were at the park, Heck got into a confrontation with an ex-girlfriend and some of her friends, authorities said. He and Kahler left to get ice cream. Heck also contacted police about the confrontation, which came days after his ex made abuse allegations, and officers were sent to speak with him while he and Kahler were at the ice cream shop.
Then Kahler disappeared.
Sabrina Kahler
Credit: Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General
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Heck, now 50, later told police he dropped Kahler off at a local shopping center and gave her money to see a movie. But two eyewitnesses have since come forward and said that account was not true, prosecutors say.
A local fisherman told authorities he saw Heck at Fairview Gravel Pits — a heavily wooded area with bodies of water — on the day Kahler vanished, shortly after a woman let out a “blood-curdling scream,” according to a news release from Pennsylvania Attorney General David Sunday.
At the same time, a former cellmate of Heck's said that years after Kahler's disappearance, Heck allegedly claimed “he raped and killed a girl at Fairview Gravel Pits and that she screamed.”
Perhaps the most damaging statement came from Douglas Heim, who alleged that Heck approached him at a bowling alley shortly after killing Kahler and recruited him to help move and bury her body, according to authorities. Officials say that information has helped them identify where Kahler may be buried, though her remains have not been found.
Sabrina Kahler's Last Day
Credit: Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General
A grand jury reviewed the claims and returned an indictment recommending murder, rape and kidnapping charges against Heck. He was arrested in Indiana on Sept. 21, police said, after officers found him hiding under blankets in a friend's home. He is now awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania.
Back in Erie, the search for Kahler's body remains active. For her loved ones and the broader community, the arrest answers some questions while leaving a painful one unresolved.
“A totality of evidence that included key grand jury testimony from previously reluctant witnesses led to a single conclusion — that David Heck raped and murdered Sabrina Kahler 24 years ago,” Sunday said following Heck's arrest. “This is a historical development that brings some answers for Sabrina's loved ones and the Erie community, but it is not a day of celebration as we have not yet brought Sabrina home. Efforts will continue to answer that one remaining question of ‘where is she?’”
Read the original article on People.