On 22 March 1979, Helen E. Horn, a widow, returned home from an evening meeting of the Gratz Historical Society. Within minutes of entering her house, she was on her dining room floor – naked and dead in a pool of blood. Although someone was charged with her murder, at trial, he was acquitted. The crime was never solved.
This post is one of 19 chronicling the discovery of the body, the arrest and trial of the suspect, and his acquittal. The story is told through articles that appeared in a Pottsville newspaper.
From the Pottsville Republican, 22 September 1979:
In Rank murder trial – Focus put on fingerprints
By SUE BOOKS, Staff Writer
HARRISBURG = Minutes before the close of the second day of the murder trial of Gary Rank of Gratz, the defense attorney demanded that the prosecution prove to the jury, through blowups of fingerprint slides or some other means, that prints found at the scene of the crime are the defendant’s.
Rank is accused of killing 68-year old Helen E. Horn in her Gratz home last March.
The prosecution, so far, has based its case against the 19-year old suspect primarily on two fingerprint identifications made by state police Trooper Dean B. Shipe of the Harrisburg Troop H crime investigation unit. The identifications have been confirmed by others testifying as experts.
Pressed Friday by defense attorney John J. Krafsig Jr. to explain the fingerprints identification process based on points of comparison. Shipe named various factors considered for the jury, but admitted that he had no enlargements of fingerprint slides to illustrate the likeness of the fingerprint found at the scene and Rank’s.
Krafsig then demanded that the Commonwealth prove the congruity of the fingerprints. Deputy District Attorney Joseph Kleinfelter objected to the demand, and presiding Dauphin County Court Judge C. Dowling overruled the objection.
Shipe testified that two fingerprints found at the home of Mrs. Horn were Rank’s. Shipe identified a fingerprint found on a sliver of glass outside the cellar window April 21, 21 days after the murder. A second fingerprint lifted from the molding on the doorway at the top of the cellar steps was identified as the defendant’s on May 3.
The first fingerprint was identified from a group of fingerprints of 24 individuals in addition to those of all persons known to be in the Horn residence near the time of the murder, Shipe said. After that identification was made, he returned to the scene to gather more evidence, he said.
‘There is no doubt in my mind’
After considerable questioning about the fingerprint identification process, Shipe said, “There is no doubt in my mind who left these fingerprints.”
“Who?” asked Kleinfelter.
“Gary Rank,” he answered.
The commonwealth attorney Friday called the coroner who examined the victim’s body and the pathologist who performed the autopsy to establish as closely as possible the time Mrs. Horn died. Other witnesses were called to establish the last time she was seen alive and the last time the defendant was seen in the neighborhood.
Deputy Coroner Dr. Edward H. Lentz, Lykens, testified that he arrived at the Horn residence just after 9 a.m., March 23, about 1 ½ hours after the body was found by Mrs. Horn’s cleaning woman.
The victim’s unclothed body was lying in a large pool of blood, he said, and her severely battered face was covered with throw rugs. Her jaw and cheek bones were injured and there was a deep cavity on the side of her head.
Judging by the stiffness of the body, Lentz estimated the time of death to be midnight to 1 a.m., March 23, but then added, “As far as the time of death, I bow to the pathologist who is better able to set it.”
The pathologist, Dr. Him W. Kwee of the Harrisburg Hospital, offered a more general estimate of the time of death – between 2 p.m. and midnight, March 22.
Kwee said the body had many bruises, extensive cuts on the head and broken bones in the face and neck. Mrs. Horn died of suffocation from strangulation, he said. The wounds seemed to have been inflicted with a blunt instrument, he testified.
The defense attorney questioned Kwee to establish whether the assailant would have had to be right- or left-handed. Kwee noted that most of the facial blows were on the right and said that assuming the victim and the assailant were facing, as most likely was the case, there is a likelihood that the victim was hit with the assailant’s left fist.
He added, however, that such a presumption depends of the assailant’s manner of hitting and later, said he could not state with any certainty whether the assailant was right- or left-handed.
Mrs. Horn’s best friend, the last person to see her alive, testified that Mrs. Horn dropped her off at the home in Gratz about 10:05 or 10:10 p.m., March 22. Mrs. Horn had picked up Ruth Sitely, 84, earlier that evening and they had gone to a meeting of the community historical society at the municipal building in their neighborhood.
Mrs. Stiely said that they left the meeting about 10 p.m., took a short ride up the main street of Gratz and came home.
Others who attend the meeting that night, Alan Troutman and Lynn C. Schadle, confirmed that the women were there and the approximate time that they left.
Susan Vettinger, 18, of Orwin, testified that she saw Rank the night of March 22. She and three friends were at a drive-in restaurant in Gratz from about 8 to 10:30 p.m. she said.
Rank also was at the drive-in part of the time, but left 10 or 15 minutes before they did, she said. The friends confirmed Miss Vettinger’s testimony about their whereabouts and the time frame.
The trial will continue late into the evening Monday, Dowling said he scheduled an evening session to try to conclude the proceedings by Wednesday.
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For all other parts of this story, see: Who Killed Helen Horn?
News clipping/article from Newspapers.com.
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