PA Who killed Christine Guenther? Peter's Twp., Oct 26, 1981

[Mind4Rent]

I grew up in a place called Peters Township. It’s in McMurray PA 15317. I’ll give you a little the history but this is on the murder of Christine Guenther on Oct 26, 1981. She left high school with permission from her parents to walk down to the bus stop to go to her dentist in Pittsburgh. The walked from the high school to the gas station at Donaldson’s Crossroads which is probably about half a mile. She disappeared. Her body was found by a local hunter in Halloween 1981 in the woods about five miles away. No one was caught for the murder or any reason why.

Christine was 15 years old. It scared our whole community. We had probably less than 15,000 residents at that time but it was a pretty involved community for those who had families and kids in school. One of the interesting things that went around as a rumor was a gentleman name Bob Dourlain is the one who committed the murder. We never heard the police talk about it or inquire about Mr. Dourlain but we all knew him. Our second grade teacher in school was Mrs. Dourlain and her daughter was a year ahead of me and her son was two years behind me. Carrie, the daughter, is convinced it was her father who did it. He was a very abusive man to the kids and his wife before being separated. He has committed to similar crimes with young girls such as kidnapping and indecent exposure I believe. Of course his community has grown leaps and bounds is probably about 40,000 now in the neighborhood. But it still sits on our hearts for those of us who grew up with it. We always wondered what happened to Christine. Our police and fire department were volunteer at the time so you can imagine the struggle of getting additional information and professional help. If this is something you’d be interested in researching go for it. I know the people there would be thrilled as well as the parents. I am including the link they have on Facebook. Our community was so tightknit that I still talk with my old teachers and even my principal who is on Facebook. It’s a small world.

Justice for Christine Guenther - Peters Township (Pittsburgh) PA

 

[MacGyverIndustries]

I grew up in a place called Peters Township. It’s in McMurray PA 15317. I’ll give you a little the history but this is on the murder of Christine Guenther on Oct 26, 1981. She left high school with permission from her parents to walk down to the bus stop to go to her dentist in Pittsburgh. The walked from the high school to the gas station at Donaldson’s Crossroads which is probably about half a mile. She disappeared. Her body was found by a local hunter in Halloween 1981 in the woods about five miles away. No one was caught for the murder or any reason why.

Christine was 15 years old. It scared our whole community. We had probably less than 15,000 residents at that time but it was a pretty involved community for those who had families and kids in school. One of the interesting things that went around as a rumor was a gentleman name Bob Dourlain is the one who committed the murder. We never heard the police talk about it or inquire about Mr. Dourlain but we all knew him. Our second grade teacher in school was Mrs. Dourlain and her daughter was a year ahead of me and her son was two years behind me. Carrie, the daughter, is convinced it was her father who did it. He was a very abusive man to the kids and his wife before being separated. He has committed to similar crimes with young girls such as kidnapping and indecent exposure I believe. Of course his community has grown leaps and bounds is probably about 40,000 now in the neighborhood. But it still sits on our hearts for those of us who grew up with it. We always wondered what happened to Christine. Our police and fire department were volunteer at the time so you can imagine the struggle of getting additional information and professional help. If this is something you’d be interested in researching go for it. I know the people there would be thrilled as well as the parents. I am including the link they have on Facebook. Our community was so tightknit that I still talk with my old teachers and even my principal who is on Facebook. It’s a small world.

Justice for Christine Guenther - Peters Township (Pittsburgh) PA

I found an old newspaper clipping from the Pittsburg Press on Oct 16, 1980 on Robert L. Dourlain. (Via this site, it's page 31 and 32)
Google New Archive

Robert L. Dourlain was arrested in 1960, 20 years prior to this news article, after he "slugged an Oakland nurse with a wrench and attempted to drag her into his car. The woman was hospitalized for 8 days."

He was charged with rape again in 1965. He escaped prison in the warden's car and remained free for a year until the FBI picked him up as a suspect in the 1966 killing of a Chicago woman.

In 1971, a 30-year-old waitress claimed that he "forced his way into her car, held a knife to her throat and took her on a terror-filled ride." In 1973, he was acquitted on these charges, even though he pled guilty previously.

His wife said that "her husband becomes violent and 'does not even know his own name' when he's on a drinking binge."

Since this was Oct 16,1980... was he in jail during her murder?

This is my first post, so please let me know if I'm not formatting correctly!

 

[MacGyverIndustries]

Robert L. Dourlain (aka Bob Dourlain) currently lives in Carnegie, PA. Based on the photos in the 1980 paper, this seems to be the same man. Robert Dourlain facebook
I couldn't find any arrest record from the other case in 1980.

 

[Snoopster]

Welcome to Websleuths @MacGyverIndustries ! Thanks for adding the thread.
My only suggestion is to provide a location (i.e. town name) and death date (Oct 1981) in the title.

 

[MacGyverIndustries]

1981 article death of Christine (pg 1 and 4)

Based on this article, it seems like they believed she was kidnapped and kept somewhere for a few days prior to being killed. There was no evidence of sexual assault at the time of the article.

 

[MacGyverIndustries]

Welcome to Websleuths @MacGyverIndustries ! Thanks for adding the thread.
My only suggestion is to provide a location (i.e. town name) and death date (Oct 1981) in the title.

I don't see a title for my posts? Am I missing it? I didn't create the thread, just responded to it.

 

[Snoopster]

Christine Guenther 11/03/81 PG - Newspapers.com

According the the above newspaper clipping (from Nov 3 1981) Christine's body was found covered in leaves in the woods off of Cecil-Sturgeon Rd.

I wonder where she was for the 3 to 4 days after she went missing?
The article that @MacGyverIndustries linked above said that she was last seen waiting for the bus at Donaldson's Crossroads on Route 19 (8 miles from where she was found). The coroner was still reporting that there was no sexual assault, but indicated that further forensic tests were still being done. I hope Christine had the perp's DNA under her fingernails. That might be the only hope for a DNA sample, which is critical to solving these cold cases.

 

[Snoopster]

I don't see a title for my posts? Am I missing it? I didn't create the thread, just responded to it.

ooops! Sorry. I see it was @Mind4Rent that set up the thread....another brand new WSer.

 

[Mind4Rent]

Welcome to Websleuths @MacGyverIndustries ! Thanks for adding the thread.
My only suggestion is to provide a location (i.e. town name) and death date (Oct 1981) in the title.

after I posted, it started looking around a bit more. I was trying to figure out how to edit the title and could not. I would’ve added the town and date like many of the other forms so I appreciate very much the info.

 

[Mind4Rent]

Christine Guenther 11/03/81 PG - Newspapers.com

According the the above newspaper clipping (from Nov 3 1981) Christine's body was found covered in leaves in the woods off of Cecil-Sturgeon Rd.

I wonder where she was for the 3 to 4 days after she went missing?
The article that @MacGyverIndustries linked above said that she was last seen waiting for the bus at Donaldson's Crossroads on Route 19 (8 miles from where she was found). The coroner was still reporting that there was no sexual assault, but indicated that further forensic tests were still being done. I hope Christine had the perp's DNA under her fingernails. That might be the only hope for a DNA sample, which is critical to solving these cold cases.

Is there anyway to get information from the police in peters Township? The ZIP Code is 15317. They have not been very forthcoming in the past but I wonder if there’s a way to look at records cause I’m really struggling to do that in Pennsylvania. I have not heard of any DNA profiling done that was found on her. They just celebrated her 40th year with a big billboard right after Covid. Nothing was ever mentioned, or any other details that I could find.

I am including the Facebook Justice for Christine page:

Justice for Christine Guenther - Peters Township (Pittsburgh) PA

Justice for Christine Guenther - Peters Township (Pittsburgh) PA. 668 likes. We are seeking any information relating to October 1981 murder of Peters Township (a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA) resident...

www.facebook.com

 

[Mind4Rent]

I found the court case docket I for for Robert Dourlain in Allegheny County open records but it doesn’t seem to tell you anything. Any idea how to look at the info in a case?

 

[Sillybilly]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 30, 1982:

(Scroll down on Pg 1 and continued on Pg 3, so not Pg 4 as article says)

"They'd ask girl's killer: Why?"

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search

I haven't time to read the whole case, so not sure if there's anything new or different from the earlier articles.

 

[PGHJW]

Wow. I'd never seen a name mentioned or even knew that there were rumors. Must've been kept very close to the area.

 

[Mind4Rent]

I appreciate the articles. It’s still so vague. No DNA testing? Not even today? She may have been out in the woods too long. It was five days. And we did have a lot of rain on Halloween that year that I remember. I think she wasn’t just held five days and killed and not assaulted. I honestly believe she was and that is kept from the police. Just my intuition.

 

[ALAD]

I grew up in a place called Peters Township. It’s in McMurray PA 15317. I’ll give you a little the history but this is on the murder of Christine Guenther on Oct 26, 1981. She left high school with permission from her parents to walk down to the bus stop to go to her dentist in Pittsburgh. The walked from the high school to the gas station at Donaldson’s Crossroads which is probably about half a mile. She disappeared. Her body was found by a local hunter in Halloween 1981 in the woods about five miles away. No one was caught for the murder or any reason why.

Christine was 15 years old. It scared our whole community. We had probably less than 15,000 residents at that time but it was a pretty involved community for those who had families and kids in school. One of the interesting things that went around as a rumor was a gentleman name Bob Dourlain is the one who committed the murder. We never heard the police talk about it or inquire about Mr. Dourlain but we all knew him. Our second grade teacher in school was Mrs. Dourlain and her daughter was a year ahead of me and her son was two years behind me. Carrie, the daughter, is convinced it was her father who did it. He was a very abusive man to the kids and his wife before being separated. He has committed to similar crimes with young girls such as kidnapping and indecent exposure I believe. Of course his community has grown leaps and bounds is probably about 40,000 now in the neighborhood. But it still sits on our hearts for those of us who grew up with it. We always wondered what happened to Christine. Our police and fire department were volunteer at the time so you can imagine the struggle of getting additional information and professional help. If this is something you’d be interested in researching go for it. I know the people there would be thrilled as well as the parents. I am including the link they have on Facebook. Our community was so tightknit that I still talk with my old teachers and even my principal who is on Facebook. It’s a small world.

Justice for Christine Guenther - Peters Township (Pittsburgh) PA

My family was very close to the Gunther's and I am very interested in your post. What do you know about Carrie and do you think she would be willing to speak with me? What do you remember about why she thought her father was the killer? I am putting some puzzle pieces together from details I remember during the investigation (the FBI was involved so it wasn't just Peters Township Police) and I think you could be on to something.

 

[PGHJW]

I noticed some blurbs in early articles shortly after she was found. They mentioned holding back the info on whether or not she was assaulted and whether or not she was wearing the same clothes that she was wearing when she disappeared. The last one is unique to even bring up, so I'm assuming that it was a rumor at the time.

I know that a lot of her friends, it appears at least one in this thread, stay active on her case, but what about police? It feels like this one could still be solved.

 

[PGHJW]

Christine’s largely unknown ordeal began 42 years ago today. I hope that this is still being looked at. The friends who were working on the page and such years ago have seemingly gone silent. The new info in this thread gives hope, though.

 

[PGHJW]

Perusing some podcasts covering Christine's case on YouTube. I don't really listen to too many podcasts on these cases as, really, what more can they tell? I will say that one stated that when she was found she had cigarette burns on her wrists. I don't remember reading that.

As usual the comments sections had interesting notes. Dourlain's name was mentioned as it is in this thread. One somewhat cryptic comment inferred that the Facebook page curated by her friends died down in activity largely in part to a "bigger story" and some sort of cover-up. So many of these cases are often rumored to have a bigger, untold story, but something definitely happened to make the momentum cease. The notion of a cover-up also sort of eliminates Dourlain, as why would anyone or entity cover-up for a known criminal like him?

 

[steeltowngirl]

Christine had an early dismissal for a doctor’s appointment. Do we know if it was a routine appointment, or - for something else?

 

[PGHJW]

Christine had an early dismissal for a doctor’s appointment. Do we know if it was a routine appointment, or - for something else?

She had been suffering from an ear infection and it was a follow-up as she’d been put on medication for it. I’ve seen it reported as a “dentist appointment,” but I believe the ear infection story to be the true version.