Learn more about the most head-scratching, heart-wrenching unsolved murders in Pennsylvania.
More than 10,000 murders remain unsolved in Pennsylvania, according to data beginning in 1965.
Many of the unsolved murders that endure in the public’s imagination are those that seem particularly improbable—especially murders from decades ago, when technologies like surveillance cameras couldn’t help solve the crimes.
Racial disparities also exist: Nationwide, a disproportionate number of unsolved murders involved Black victims, a pattern that persists in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
We’ve compiled details on 10 of these Pennsylvania cold cases, including decades-old murders that remain unsolved and recent homicide investigations that have yet to result in arrests. Please note that the events described below may be distressing.
The 1969 murder of Betsy Aardsma
In November 1969, 22-year-old Pennsylvania State University graduate student Betsy Aardsma was stabbed to death within the stacks of Penn State’s Pattee Library. Though the attack occurred in the middle of the day with several people nearby, the students who rushed to the scene initially thought Aardsma had simply fainted, and library staff cleaned the area before police understood what had happened. With the murder having occurred before the advent of technologies like surveillance cameras and investigative tools like DNA profiling, nearly 60 years later, no one has ever been charged in one of Pennsylvania’s most famous cold cases.
In recent years, two separate books named a former Penn State student as the most plausible suspect due to circumstantial evidence and witness accounts, but the man died in 2002.
The 1969 murder of Joan Dymond
Joan Dymond was only 14 years old when she disappeared after leaving her house in Wilkes-Barre to walk to a nearby park in late June 1969. For decades, her disappearance was treated as a missing person case. Then, in 2022, remains found in neighboring Newport in 2012 were identified as Dymond’s. Her family was finally able to hold a funeral in 2023.
Now a murder case, the investigation remains ongoing.
The 1970 murder of John Leonard
In 1970, taxi driver John Leonard was responding to a call at the Inn at Buck Hill Falls in the Pocono Mountains. Not long after, he was found dead in his cab, parked in the driveway of the hotel. He had been shot to death.
Investigators struggled to identify a murderer and a potential motive.
What’s more, Leonard’s estranged wife died three years later, and the Leonard children are convinced the deaths are related.
Madeleine Leonard had made it her mission to solve John’s murder, and on the night of her death, she told her children she was going to check out a lead. She was soon found dead in a car wreck near Mount Pocono.
Twins Lori and Debra believe their mother was run off the road because she had information about their father’s murderer—and they’re still hoping for justice for both deaths.
The 1970 murder of Terrence Bowers
Terrence “Terry” Bowers was only 11 years old when he was stabbed to death during an overnight camping trip with his Boy Scout troop in Chester County. The crime’s unusual circumstances—Bowers was surrounded by fellow scouts all night, but they only discovered his body in the morning—as well as limited physical evidence complicated the investigation, and the murder was never solved.
A number of podcasts have covered the mystery, including an episode of “A Simpler Time True Crime.”
The 1972 murder of Dolores Della Penna
In July 1972, 17-year-old Dolores Della Penna was abducted while walking home from a trolley stop in Philadelphia. Later that month, her remains were found in multiple locations in New Jersey, leading to intense public shock and extensive media coverage—but no arrests.
Two decades later, investigators said they believed they had identified who was responsible, pointing to a crew of drug dealers who falsely believed Della Penna had stolen a cache of drugs. However, no one was ever charged in the case, and it remains unsolved. Reports from the time suggest that prosecutors were reluctant to pursue charges because many of the suspects had already died or were implicated by witnesses who were incarcerated.
The 1993 murder of Stephanie Coyle
In the summer of 1993, 74-year-old Stephanie Coyle was found brutally murdered in her home in Arnold, just outside of Pittsburgh. The crime was never solved, leaving her family both devastated and angry.
Just this year, however, Coyle’s murder has been pushed back into the spotlight thanks to the efforts of a family friend, who promised in May a reward of $50,000—in addition to the existing $10,000 reward—for new leads that help find Coyle’s killer. The friend, Eric Brophy, was moved to act when he learned that the district attorney’s office had stopped returning the family’s calls asking for updates about the case.
“I couldn’t help but feel that if Stephanie Coyle had been 50 years younger or a more prominent public figure, this case would have been handled differently,” Brophy told the Tribune-Review.
The 1997 murder of Charlotte Fimiano
Lehigh Valley realtor Charlotte Fimiano, 40, was murdered in a Northampton County home she was showing in 1997. While it’s likely she was murdered by the client who had scheduled the showing, that client remains unknown. After decades of police work, her murder is still unsolved.
“A death like hers is bad enough,” Fimiano’s sister Bernadette Johnson told The Morning Call in 2007. “But all this time of not knowing, it’s awful.”
Fimiano’s death led to increased safety procedures and security measures for realtors.
The 2007 murders of Janea Irvin & Elegant McGriff
In fall 2007, 32-year-old Janea (spelled Jeanea in some sources) Irvin and 24-year-old Elegant McGriff were both found dead in Chester, shot to death in a double homicide.
Investigators immediately believed that the women’s deaths were connected to another murder around the same time, that of Maurice Goodman, a drug dealer whose body was discovered in the trunk of a rental car.
While three men were eventually convicted in Goodman’s death, no one was ever arrested for the murders of Irvin and McGriff, and the case is still open.
The 2016 murder of Markia Benson
In 2016, 36-year-old Markia Benson was murdered in her apartment in Upper Darby and found in the bathtub, the shower running. Her apartment was trashed, with cruel messages scrawled on the walls. Investigators believe that her murderer knew her personally—there was no sign of forced entry—but they have yet to make an arrest.
A September 2021 podcast episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” looked into the murder and possible suspects.
The 2020 murders of Jerome Lawrence and Sindrell Oliver
Cousins Jerome Lawrence, 29, and Sindrell Oliver, 46, were visible on camera entering a tax preparation business in Philadelphia’s Olney neighborhood in October 2020—but they were never seen exiting.
Lawrence and Oliver seemingly disappeared, and they were soon reported missing.
Then, in 2022, authorities received a tip that led them to the basement of a home not far from the tax shop, which had since closed. After digging into the concrete floor, police found Lawrence’s and Oliver’s bodies. Both had been murdered.
The case, now a homicide, is still being actively investigated.
