BELLEFONTE, Pa. (WJAC) — In March of 1993, just north of Bellefonte along Route 550 near Interstate 80, police found the body of a 17-year-old runaway from Maine.
The man convicted of her murder, a truck driver, has been in state prison ever since.
But now a state court ruling may bring him back for a new trial in Centre County.
The victim was Dawn Birnbaum, and her body was discovered in a snow drift along a highway on ramp for the Bellefonte Exit of I-99.
Just a few days before her body was discovered there, the 17-year-old Birnbaum was reported missing from a school in Maine.
Police said she got to Centre County by hitching a ride with truck driver James Cruz.
Key evidence in the case against him included gas station receipts, tire tracks and hair found in his truck cab.
There was also a rope that police said Cruz used to tie up Birnbaum.
Cruz was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1994, but several years ago, possible problems with the hair evidence surfaced.
The justice departments admits there were discrepancies with evidence tested by the FBI at the same lab where the Birnbuam evidence was tested.
Those discrepancies triggered a new round of appeals in Cruz's cases.
Two months ago, in November, the state Superior Court issues a decision that could set up a retrial, sending the case back to Centre County.
Prosecutors in the district attorney’s office immediately filed an appeal in December, but just a few days ago, court documents reveal, state police began reviewing the evidence -- much of it from 1993 -- in the Cruz case.
Birnbuam, whose identity was a mystery when her body was first found, was buried in Bellefonte’s Union Cemetery.
ncG1vNJzZmivmpawtcKNnKamZ56axLR7y6iamqRfo7K4edGuo6Kml2KwsMHLnWSlnZGZerW7jKucraqZlrluss6rZKaZnmKwsLrVopqtnZRivKd5kHJwbGWdqr%2BlsdFmpp9lpJqyrw%3D%3D