On 5 August 1989, Tracy Kroh, a 17-year-old honor student at Halifax Area High School, left her home at Enterline, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, to deliver some items to her sister who lived north of Halifax, Dauphin County. She was never seen again. Her locked car was found in the town square at Millersburg, several miles north of her sister’s home.
This post is part of a series chronicling the efforts to find out what happened to her. To date, although nothing conclusive has been determined, she was most likely the victim of foul play. The case of her disappearance remains unsolved to this day.
This story is told through news articles appearing in regional newspapers available from Newspapers.com.
For all other blog posts on Tracy Kroh, see: Disappearance of Tracy Kroh at Millersburg, 1989.
The article presented here from August 1993 reported that the police were investigating an alleged confession of a Virginia prisoner who claimed he murdered Tracy Kroh and buried her body near Roanoke.
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From the Pottsville Republican, 19 August 1993:
Search continues for Kroh
Investigation goes into fifth year
By Chris Brennan, The REPUBLICAN
ENTERLINE – It has been four years and two weeks since Tracey Marie Kroh was last seen near her home in Enterline, Dauphin County.
Kroh was 17 when she disappeared on August 5, 1989. The girl with an easy smile and brown hair down to her shoulders was about to enter her senior year at nearby Halifax Area High School.
State police have conducted a frustrating investigation, turning up little in the way of evidence about what happened to Kroh.
The investigation got a boost last September when a man being held in the city jail at Richmond, Virginia, allegedly told a fellow inmate he was responsible for Kroh’s disappearance.
Larry S. Rampe, who was being held for violating his parole by trying to lure two young girls into his car, said he had killed Kroh and buried her body near Roanoke, Virginia, according to state police.
The inmate Rampe allegedly confessed to was a police informant.
Rampe had worked as a farm hand in Breezewood, Pennsylvania, in 1989, according to Sgt. Lynn E. Hess, commander of the state police barracks in Lykens. However, he did not work at the farm at the time of Kroh’s disappearance in August, Hess said.
Virginia police searched Rampe’s apartment while he was in jail hoping to find a class ring he claimed to have kept after burying Kroh.
The search failed to turn up the ring.
Rampe was convicted of attempted abduction in Virginia according to Sgt. Donald Carter of the Richmond Police Department. He was also convicted on federal weapons charged because he was carrying a handgun when police arrested him, another parole violation, Carter said.
He is serving a 22-year prison term.
Hess said having Rampe in jail makes it easier for investigators to question him but he is not listed as a suspect in the case.
“We’re dealing with an informant in jail,” Hess said.
Jailhouse informants often say what they think police want to hear, according to Hess.
But state police are following up on the tip as a possible lead in the case. They have sent the informant’s information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Crime Lab in Virginia for study.
The tip is being evaluated, according to Hess, to judge its credibility. FBI crime experts are also examining Rampe’s criminal history, Hess said, looking for information to help the investigation.
Rampe’s criminal history dates back to 1981, in Colorado, according to Hess.
“We still have other leads that we’re looking at,” he sad. “We’re not running down a bunch of them at the same time.
“If this case comes up empty, then we’re going to be picking up on some of these other leads that need some investigation,” Hess said.
Kroh was last seen on the square in Millersburg. She had left home in the early evening that Saturday to drop off grocery coupons and a barbeque grill at the home of her sister, Tammy Hoffman.
Hoffman was out to dinner with her husband at the time. She found the grill on her porch when she returned around 6:30 p.m.
Kroh had disappeared somewhere in the 19 miles between her home and Hoffman’s house. Her mother, Ellen Kroh, first through she had decided to stay at Hoffman’s house for the night. When she did not return by Sunday afternoon, her father, Ivan Kroh, went looking for her.
Her family was not available for comment this week.
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Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.