Murdered 1/21/89
Case File Details
At about 7:30 p.m. Jan. 21, 1989, relatives arrived at Rose Josephine Hnath's home in North Whitehall and found it ransacked and her dead, police said.
She was a widow who lived alone near the west bank of the Lehigh River, police said.
She died from blunt force injuries and stab wounds, police said.
Case Updates
Michael Breisch, 65, has been charged with the 1989 murder of 78-year-old Rose Hnath in North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania. Hnath was found dead in her ransacked home with multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma. The case remained unsolved for over 30 years until DNA technology identified Breisch as the suspect. At the time of the murder, Breisch lived in a community corrections facility in Allentown. He was arrested in Ohio and extradited to Pennsylvania, where he is being held without bail. Investigators believe Breisch acted alone and did not know Hnath. The arrest brought relief to Hnath's family.
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