In 1981, a suspect was arrested, charged and tried in an unsolved murder case from 1977. The result of the trial was that the individual was acquitted.
At the end of March 1977, Mrs. Jennie E. Barr, an elderly widow, was found dead in her den in her home in Tremont, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The cause of death was strangulation and she was also sexually assaulted. Investigators ruled the death a homicide.
This murder was the first of four that occurred in the Lykens Valley area in a less than three-year period between 1977 and 1979 – all of elderly widows.. To this day, none of the four murders have been solved.
The story of the arrest, charging and trial is told here in a 12 part series through articles published in the Pottsville Republican.
From the Pottsville Republican, 19 February 1991:
Four years after slaying of Jennie Barr – Neighbor charged in Tremont murder
By DAVE CARROLL, Staff Writer
TREMONT – A 24-year -old male was arrested and charged Tuesday with the brutal March 1977 strangulation of Jennie Barr, 78.
Charged in the killing was a neighbor of Mrs. Barr, William J. Harner, 14 N. Crescent St., Tremont,. Harner was arrested by state police at Pottsville barracks Wednesday and charged with criminal homicide in an arraignment the same day in the office of District Magistrate Earl Matz, Tremont. He is the only person charged in the case.
Police said that the man who allegedly murdered Mrs. Barr in her home at 20 N. Crescent St. lived with his parents at the same address with his parents, Junior Harner and Betty Harner, police said.
The murder was committed late Wednesday night, March 30, of early Thursday morning, March 31.
Police said Harner is employed as a miner by the Kocher Coal Company, Tower City. The accused, who is of medium height and build and has brown hair, stood calmly and answered questions during arraignment proceedings in a room of a former schoolhouse on Pine Street where Magistrate Matz’s office is located. He was later rushed out of the building and taken to Schuylkill County Prison where he was committed without bail. Bail is to be set at a later date by the courts, police said.
The orderliness of the arraignment proceedings belied the brutality of the murder for which the accused is charged. The body of Jennie E. Barr was discovered in a first-floor den at 10:15 p.m. March 31, with a would on her head and blood on the floor. An autopsy determined that she had been sexually assaulted and died of manual strangulation. Persons associated with the investigation at the time termed it “maniacal.” No motive for the murder has ever been determined, police said. The slaying of Mrs. Barr was among four similar slayings i8n the Schuylkill-Dauphin County area in a less than three-year period.
Fear swept through the community after the brutal murder. Older citizens bolted their doors, and residents feared to venture out into the streets.
Tremont Police Chief Elmer Cutler said Harner was picked up at the Schuylkill County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon by state police while waiting for a pre-trial hearing on a drunk driving charge stemming from an incident in Tremont. Cutler was there to testify against Harner, but the hearing was canceled after Harner was taken away. Harner was then taken to state police barracks in Pottsville.
The four-year investigation into the murder was conducted by state police at Pottsville, Reading and Hamburg. Also assisting were the Jonestown Police, Tremont Police and the Schuykilll County District Attorney’s office.
A preliminary hearing for Harner has been tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday, February 26, in the office of District Magistrate Matzt.
_____________________________
Photo Caption
William J. Harner, center, hides his face from a photographer’s camera after arraignment Wednesday on a criminal homicide charge in the 1977 murder of Jennie Barr, Tremont. He is led from offices of Distriict Magistrate Earl Matz by Lt. Donald Holloway, left of state police at Reading and Trooper John Bordonaro, right of state police at Pottsville. At right, Harner, 26-year-old resident of Tremont, is led by police to waiting car after his arraignment.
____________________________________
For all other parts of this story, see: A Trial & An Acquittal, 1981.
For all parts of the story of the murder, see: Who Killed Jennie E. Barr?
News clipping/article from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.