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, 29 May 1981
Jurors sought ‘in street’
So many prospective jurors for the murder trial of 24-year-old William J. Harner, Tremont, have been challenged after questioning by defense counsel and Schuylkill County assistant district attorneys that sheriff’s deputies were ordered to go out into the county and select additional jurors at random Thursday.
At the direction of Judge Joseph F. McCloskey, who will preside in the trial, 30 possible jurors were chosen at area shopping malls and in downtown Pottsville to supplement the panel already on hand at the courthouse. The additional jurors were to report today, court Administrator David R. Workman said.
Meanwhile, five more jurors were selected Thursday for the trial, leaving two more regular members of the jury and two alternated to be chosen.
The selection process may be completed today, but the trial, which stems from the March 1977 murder of Jennie E. Barr, 78, in Tremont, is not expected to commence before Monday.
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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.
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