Homicide investigators have turned to new DNA technology to create composite sketches of a fair-skinned, dark-haired man they hope will solve the 1975 slaying of 19-year-old Lindy Sue Biechler, who died with a butcher knife in her neck.
The recently married flower shop clerk was sexually assaulted and stabbed 19 times during a struggle in the living room of her Manor Township apartment, police said. The attack happened Dec. 5, 1975 after she returned home from grocery shopping.
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman at a news conference Thursday afternoon said the sketches offer a scientific approximation of appearance, but smoking, drinking, diet or scars could have created variations that DNA can’t predict.
The hair style is a guess based on styles of that era, investigators said.
“A snapshot might trigger something for somebody,” Stedman said. “We don’t need much here. We just need something.”
The composites have already been useful in disqualifying potential persons of interest, Stedman said.
Two sketches were released. One depicts a suspect at age 25, the other at age 65. But investigators don’t know how old the killer was in 1975.
It’s possible the killer is dead. If so, Stedman said, solving the case would still bring comfort to the victim’s family and friends “who have suffered long enough.”
The District Attorney’s Office and Manor Township police hired Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs to create the composites, also called phenotypes.
In the weeks before her slaying, Biechler had told family and friends she thought someone was following her.
The victim’s husband, Philip D. Biechler, was at work at the time of the killing, and Stedman said his DNA was not a match with what was recovered at the scene.
“There isn’t any other reason to wait,” Stedman said in releasing the sketches. “It’s been far too long.”
Lancaster County investigators have used this cold-case tactic before. In 2017, they released sketches derived from DNA collected after the 1992 slaying of teacher Christy Mirack.
But investigators made an arrest in 2018 only after getting a hit on a genealogy website. Raymond Rowe, a party deejay, pleaded guilty earlier this year and is serving a life sentence in state prison.
DNA from Mirack’s murder linked to Rowe’s half-sister out of nearly 1.4 million profiles on GEDmatch.com, an online genealogy service. Parabon staff and police traced the DNA to Rowe.
But in May, GEDmatch.com changed its privacy policy so that users have to opt in for their DNA to be available for law enforcement searches. Now only about 40,000 profiles are available to police.
“It was a crippling blow to law enforcement in the nation and victims’ families,” Stedman said.
Still, the district attorney’s office ran a search through GEDmatch with the Beichler sample but found nothing.
The sample has been submitted the profile to a different database, which has led to some leads, according to Christine Wilson, assistant district attorney.
The work with Parabon cost $4,000, and the submission to the DNA database cost $750. The district attorney’s office and Manor Township split the cost.
“This worked for us once and we certainly hope this works for us a second time,” Stedman said. “There’s no guarantee it’s going to be solved.”
The district attorney said the voices of victims “has not been forgotten.”
Tips can be submitted by several means:
– to Lancaster City-County CrimeStoppers at 1-800-322-1913 or text-messaging LANCS and your tip to 847411.
– by using the tip button at WhoKilledLindyBiechler.com
– by calling Manor Township police at 717-299-5231 or the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office at 717-299-8100.
