Christy Mirack




Pennsylvania DJ arrested in 1992 murder of teacher

A Pennsylvania DJ was arrested in the death of a sixth grade teacher after authorities linked him to the crime with DNA uploaded to a genealogy website more than two decades after the murder occurred.

Authorities on Monday arrested Raymond “DJ Freez” Rowe for the murder of Christy Mirack at his home in Lancaster and charged him with criminal homicide.

Mirack, a teacher at Rohrerstown Elementary School, was 25 years old when her principal found her dead inside her home the morning of December 21, 1992.

She’d been wearing a her jacket and gloves at the time — that paired with scuff marks on the ground led authorities to believe she’d been one her way out and then pulled back into her home when she was attacked.

It was clear a struggle had occurred and that Mirack had been sexually assaulted, officials said. Her shirt had been pushed up and the rest of her clothes pulled down from her waist.

“The killer was at liberty for this brutal crime longer than Christy Mirack was alive on this earth,” Lancaster District Attorney Craig Stedman told reporters during a press conference Monday. “His apprehension was long overdue.”

Rowe, who claims to have served as a DJ for Brooke Hogan and Paris Hilton, was not on authorities’ radar as a suspect until a relative uploaded their DNA to a database on GEDmatch — the same genealogy service involved in cracking the Golden State Killer case.

Investigators had previously taken DNA samples from Mirack’s body and from the floor where she was found, where there were fluids from the supposed attack. They did not have a match until Stedman hired a private company to use the DNA to search for relatives of the suspect.

Still, the new evidence was not enough for an arrest. Following an undercover operation at an elementary school where he was performing as DJ Freez in May however, authorities recovered a water bottle and gum and used to it to establish a genetic match.

Rowe lived about four miles away from the apartment Mirack shared with her roommate in 1992. It's unclear if they knew each other.

Stedman said his office is considering pursuing the death penalty for Rowe, who is being held at Lancaster County Prison without bond.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crim...626-story.html