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, 5 May 1979:
Gratz murder suspect bound over for trial
By SUE BOOKS, Staff Writer
ELIZABETHVILLE – The case of Gary W. Rank, 18, suspect in the murder of Helen E. Horn of Gratz, will be tried in court.
District Magistrate Francis A. Reichenbach, during a preliminary hearing Friday in his office here, found sufficient evidence to warrant a jury trial.
The case against Rank rests on two partial fingerprints identified as Rank’s by officer Dean B. Snipe of the identification unit of the state police at Harrisburg.
Rank several times has denied ever being in the home of Mrs. Horn, according to Sgt. VanNort, head of the troop H crime investigation unit of the state police at Harrisburg who arrested Rank April 24.
VanNort made the arrest following a search of Rank’s home, which is about three tenths of a mile west of Mrs. Horn’s residence at 343 Market St.
Snipe testified that he found 13 pints of comparison on one fingerprint and 19 points of comparison on another, which he said “he had no doubt” were Rank’s.
He would feel comfortable identifying a print with 10-12 points of comparison, Snipes said, but admitted to first assistant district attorney Richard Lewis, the prosecution attorney, that a perfect identification would require 75-200 points of comparison.
The body of Mrs. Horn, 68, was found in her home about 7:30 a.m. March 23 by Mrs. Mary Hepler, who has known Mrs. Horn 40 years and has done housecleaning for her for 24 years.
Mrs. Hepler found the nude beaten body face up on the dining room floor by the table, she said. Mrs. Horn’s head had been covered with a rug.
Horrified, Mrs. Hepler covered the body with a coat and ran out the door to a neighbor’s home and went with the neighbor to funeral director James A. Reed’s office.
The coroner and the police were then called.
Doctor Him Kwee, pathologist at Harrisburg Hospital who performed the autopsy, testified that Mrs. Horn’s neck was broken, her head was fractured in several places, her face was cut, and there were multiple bruises on the head, neck, shoulders, breast, right arm and trunk. Kwee said that Mrs. Horn died of suffocation due to strangulation.
Kwee said he performed the autopsy about 4 p.m. March 23. Mrs. Horn could have died from 16 to 26 hours earlier, or between 2.p.m. March 22 and noon March 23 he said.
Mrs. Horn was last seen about 10 p.m. March 22. She had gone to an historical society meeting in the neighborhood municipal building and probably returned after the meeting.
Mrs. Horn, formerly Helen Feisburg of Minersville, lived alone with 15 cats. She was widowed about 15 years ago.
Mrs. Horn was Rank’s third grade teacher. However, according to VanNort, Rank did not know her personally.
One pane in a three-pane cellar window was found broken by the police. A sliver of glass from the pane, which was found outside the residence, had one of the partial fingerprints identified by Shipe as Rank’s. The other alleged fingerprint of Rank’s was picked up from a doorway leading to the upper part of the house from the cellar.
Mrs. Hepler testified that she “didn’t know how someone (attempting to enter the house through the broken window) wouldn’t break their neck. There were apparently quite a few boxes stacked in the cellar in front of the window.
According to VanNort’s recounting of his interview with Rank the afternoon of the arrest. Rank got home from the Mon Mar Manufacturing Co. Inc. in Gratz, where he worked about 3:20 the afternoon of March 22.
Between 3:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. that night, he made several calls to his girlfriend, met several friends and drove to Millersburg and back, drinking beer along the way.
A handkerchief and some clothing that was found near the body have been turned over to a crime investigation laboratory in Harrisburg, but VanNort said he had not received a report on the laboratory findings.
Pressed by defense attorney John Krafsig to account for the apparent delay, VanNort explained, “they have a job to do – just like you do – and will report to us when they have competed their tests.”
According to Krafsig, police took Rank from Reichenbach’s office at 7 p.m. after his arraignment, but did not leave him in the Dauphin County Prison in Harrisburg, where he is being held without bail, until 11:30 p.m.
VanNort told Rank, “he had better confess” and “that his attorney wouldn’t do him any good,” the defense attorney said. VanNort denied the charge.
Krafsig said that VanNort, at the prison, did not bring Rank out to talk with Krafsig. VanNort said Rank was being fingerprinted and again explained that “they (the fingerprinters) had a job to do.”
Unless there is a change of venue, the case will be tried in the Dauphin County courthouse in Harrisburg.
Following the hearing, Rank was ushered into a police car as his girlfriend called to him “hold your head high – you know we’re behind you.”
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For all other parts of this story, see: Who Killed Helen Horn?
News clipping/article from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.