Alliance teen’s body exhumed 30 years after her unsolved murder
PORTAGE COUNTY, Ohio (WJW) — Underneath a white tent at Saint Joseph Cemetery in Alliance, the FBI, U.S. Marshals and Portage County Sheriff’s investigators exhume the remains of 17-year-old Kathryn Menendez, 30 years after her murder.
They are hoping advancements in modern DNA technology will reveal her killer.
“At that time, collection of evidence was at a minimum because of the fact that the DNA really wasn’t to the level that it is today,” said chief deputy Ralph Spidalieri with Portage County Sheriff’s Office.
It was in August of 1994 when Menendez’s naked body was found along an access road to an oil well near Berlin Lake in Portage County’s Deerfield Township.
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The FBI says she had been beaten, stabbed and strangled.
Janet Menendez, the victim’s mother, spoke out to FOX 8 back in 2015.
“She was a sweetheart, she loved everybody. Everybody was her friend, and I used to try and tell her, ‘Kathy, not everybody is your friend,'” she said.
It took investigators two years to be granted a court order to exhume the body. It’s still not known how long it will take to reveal the results of this latest investigation.
“The biggest thing is the amount of finesse it takes to remove that. You do not want to disturb any movement within the casket as you’re pulling it out. That potentially has any contamination, as far as any water inside that has built up over the years,” said Spidalieri.
The entire exhumation lasted three hours.
“We had a successful collection of the evidence and it will be going over to the lab to start to get processed and analyzed in hopes of having something come out of this today,” said Spidalieri.
In November of 1994, the remains of a second girl, 14-year old Sarah Boehm, were also found near Berlin Lake. Authorities believe the same person may be responsible for both murders.
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Kathryn Menendez’s mother passed away in February of this year. Her father also died in the years after the gruesome discovery.
Spidalieri says closure for not only the family, but investigators who have been working closely on this case, is long overdue.
“We take this stuff seriously. We have family members also and we treat others the way we’d want to be treated and we would want closure like we’re trying for their families,” he said.
Investigators say evidence has led to two suspects over the years, but the evidence wasn’t strong enough to lead to an arrest.
They are now renewing calls for anyone with information about the killer to come forward.
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