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Criminal Justice

Lehigh Valley man acquitted in 1989 cold case killing of North Whitehall widow

Lehigh County Courthouse
Hayden Mitman
/
LehighValleyNews.com
Michael Breisch, of Wind Gap, was accused of killing Rose Josephine Hnath, a 78-year-old widow, in her North Whitehall home in January 1989, when he was 30 years old. He was acquitted Friday, the day he turned 67.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A man charged last year with homicide after authorities reopened a 35-year-old cold case was cleared Friday in Lehigh County court.

Michael Breisch, of Wind Gap, was accused of killing Rose Josephine Hnath, a 78-year-old widow, in her North Whitehall Township home in January 1989, when he was 30 years old.

Breisch turned 67 on Friday, the day a jury acquitted him of all charges connected to Hnath’s death, including criminal homicide, robbery and aggravated assault, according to a news release from the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office.

Rose Hnath, cold case homicide
Courtesy
/
Pennsylvania State Police
Rose Josephine Hnath, 78, was found dead on Jan. 21, 1989, at her residence in North Whitehall Township. Relatives found the widow's home ransacked and the victim lying on the floor. She died from blunt force injuries and stab wounds, according to state police. Authorities on May 16, 2024, announced they had arrested a 65-year-old man and charged him in the killing of Hnath.

Family members found Hnath dead after she didn’t show up for a church service, prosecutors said.

She had been repeatedly stabbed and beaten, District Attorney Gavin Holihan said when charges were filed against Breisch in May 2024.

Breisch was arrested in Ohio, where he had recently moved. He was held in Lehigh County Jail since his arrest.

Holihan credited investigators’ persistence and major advances in DNA technology for unearthing a new theory of what happened at Hnath’s home 3 1/2 decades ago.

Genealogical investigation

Police in recent years started building a family tree for Hnath’s killer based on DNA found in her home in 1989.

They created a profile and partnered with Innovative Forensic Investigations to analyze it in various databases looking for a match.

Investigators use only databases that cooperate with law enforcement, including GEDMatch and Family Tree DNA, according to IFI executive Thomas McAndrew, who was integral in the search for Hnath’s killer.

McAndrew, of Emmaus, is a retired Pennsylvania state trooper. He also served as a major case investigator for the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office.

He has described the search for Hnath’s killer as a “puzzle.”

IFI also is using genetic genealogy to help determine the identity of skeletal remains discovered in Canal Park in Allentown in April 1991.

That is the only unidentified case in Lehigh County.