Trending
By JIM RUNKLE
LOCK HAVEN – Twenty-three years ago today, Katherine Dolan Heckel left her job at the International Paper Company and was never seen again.
Today, the case remains open and the investigation is ongoing, according to Tpr. Curtis A. Confer of the state police at Lamar.
New information is being actively developed – and state police are again asking area residents for any information that might lead to an arrest and prosecution of the person responsible, Tpr. Confer said.
“On July 15, 1991 Katherine Dolan Heckel went missing from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania after leaving her place of employment at the International Paper Company for her scheduled lunch hour,” Tpr. Confer said. “She failed to return to work or to her residence.”
Heckel, 40, a management secretary, called her two children just before lunch that day and said she was going to run some errands and would eat her lunch alone. At the start of her lunch break, she drove her car out of the parking lot. She hasn’t been seen since.
Her relatives reported her missing the next day. Her husband, John, was in the National Guard and was away from home on a two-week training exercise when his wife disappeared, so he was quickly ruled out as a suspect in her case.
Nobody really knows what happened to Kathy, but police and family members believe she was murdered.
Her body has never been found.
Heckel’s unoccupied vehicle, a 1990 Ford Festiva – a silver, two-door coupe – was located in the parking lot of the Lock Haven Hospital three days later.
According to the investigation, the woman wasn’t carrying any money or personal belongings at the time of her disappearance, and her financial accounts have not been used since she went missing.
A widespread search provided no clues for the investigation.
Heckel was last seen wearing a maroon, blue, and yellow print sleeveless dress; tan flat shoes and a gold engagement ring with one-carat diamond.
Lab reports have been received from the State Police Crime Lab in Harrisburg on items submitted for examination, Tpr. Confer said, but the specific content of those reports cannot be released.
Authorities have continued to focus on a known individual, one of Heckel’s co-workers at the time of her disappearance.
Reports suggest Heckel told a friend she had a relationship with that person but wanted to end the relationship. She also said the person didn’t want the relationship to be over.
The known individual’s van was seen leaving the International Paper Company at around the same time as Heckel’s car. A DNA profile was obtained in the van and traces of Heckel’s blood type were found on the van’s carpeting, the middle seat and the interior light.
Police also found a box of .25 caliber ammunition, a hunting knife, a partially used roll of duct tape and two athletic bags in the van, and a .25 caliber pistol in the individual’s desk inside International Paper Company.
This person of interest has continued to deny any knowledge of Heckel’s disappearance and has never been charged in the case.
Since 1991, the investigation has taken several turns in new directions, as new technology has been developed, or as new investigators have taken over the task. The probe into the disappearance has been looked at by federal authorities, and by a state panel of cold-case experts.
The Pennsylvania State Police has been actively working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Attorneys General’s office to see if there are any more viable leads to be followed, Tpr. Confer said.
The FBI Violent Criminal Apprehension Program was also contacted and Heckel’s information is on the ViCAP website.
The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) is a unit of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation responsible for the analysis of serial violent and sexual crimes,
ViCAP was created in 1985 by the FBI out of Quantico, Va.
The agency is designed to track and correlate information on violent crime, especially murder. The FBI provides the software for the database which is widely used by state and local law enforcement agencies to compile information on a number of crimes, including unsolved homicides, especially those involving a kidnapping or if they are apparently motiveless, sexual or random , or suspected to be part of a series.
The agency also assists in gathering information on missing persons where foul play is suspected.
Cases fitting those categories can be entered into the system by law enforcement officials and compared to other cases in an attempt to correlate and match possible connections. Vi-CAP has been a tool in solving many cases, including cases decades old and cases in widely separated states.
The ViCAP website featured Heckel’s disappearance as recently as last February, and details of the crime appear on the FBI site on a regular basis.