Even if the uncle's DNA was a match, short of a confession or eyewitness coming forward, LE would have had a hell of a time with this case. It's too bad that now the family is unlikely to get a definitive answer to what happened to her.
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So re the DNA, what is the next step in the case? I mean since the DNA is corrupted does that mean nothing more can be done and that the case is "closed"? Apparently, there was another murder in Levittown around the same time. Matt, have you ever heard of that case?
I was there when they found Shaun Ritterson's body. I grew up on Buckingham Mountain (no one called it Church Hill). I was fifteen at the time and swimming in my neighbor's pool when the father and son spotted her. We later found a pentagram carved in the woods near the spot where the body was found so there was a lot of talk about her being killed in a Satanic ritual. My family owned the property that butted up next to the graveyard. A lot of teenagers partied there and at the quarry at the bottom of the mountain. Shaun lived in Bristol (where I live now ironically) and was last seen at the Capri bar (still there) in Levittown which is a 40--45 minute drive to Buckingham. My guess is the killer knew the spot from partying there. Also, my neighbor said she had heard the sound of a truck tailgate slamming that night.
bbm - in the 2012 articles it was not reported like this. It said her father and other family went to the coroner's office and id'd her body there. Which version is correct?
Gutting a body and taking organs is not very common. It would be interesting to know which organs were taken. All? Or just some, for example the female reproductive organs? Cover up of a pregnancy and satanic ritual both popped in my mind as well. If only female organs were taken I would think she might have been pregnant but they would have been able to establish this through a blood test even back then, right?
Reading her post, I took it to mean her neighbors (the father and son) spotted her body, not Shaun's family. It would stand to reason if La Regina was swimming in her neighbor's pool, the neighbor family would have been outside swimming, too and spotted Shaun's body. What a terrible thing to see.