Man charged with raping, murdering 20-year-old Pennsylvania woman in 2002 cold case

A man has been charged with raping and murdering a 20-year-old Pennsylvania woman more than two decades ago, the attorney general announced on Monday. 

Fifty-year-old David Heck of Brazil, Indiana, has been charged in the death of 20-year-old Sabrina Kahler in Erie County in 2002, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said, bringing some closure to her family, though her body has never been found. 

24-year-old cold case solved

According to prosecutors, Heck took Kahler swimming on June 24, 2002, before taking her to a wooded area near Lake Erie where he raped and killed her. 

While Kahler's death remained unsolved for 24 years, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said the recently formed Cold Case Section collaborated with local investigators and a grand jury, which recommended charges of murder, rape and kidnapping against Heck. He was arrested at his home in Indiana on Monday. 

"A totality of evidence that included key grand jury testimony from previously-reluctant witnesses led to a single conclusion — that David Heck raped and murdered Sabrina Kahler 24 years ago," Sunday said in a press release. "This is a historical development that brings some answers for Sabrina's loved ones and the Erie community, but it is not a day of celebration as we have not yet brought Sabrina home." 

Testimony lays out timeline

The attorney general's office said the grand jury heard testimony from two of Heck's acquaintances, providing a full picture of what happened to Kahler. 

Prosecutors said Heck showed up unexpectedly at Kahler's home on East Third Street on June 24, 2002, and asked if she wanted to go swimming. Kahler was home alone, but Heck was her boyfriend's cousin, and they had all gone swimming before. 

Kahler agreed and Heck drove them to Eagley Park, where he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend and some of her friends, so the two went to an ice cream shop, Tasty Twist, the attorney general's office said. Heck had been charged days earlier with assaulting his ex-girlfriend and was on probation, so he called police, who saw Heck and Kahler at Tasty Twist. 

Heck then drove Kahler to Fairview Gravel Pits, which is a heavily wooded area with bodies of water, prosecutors said. That's where Heck raped and killed Kahler, with a fisherman reporting he heard a woman's "blood-curdling scream" before a man matching Heck's photo from a TV news broadcast walked out of the woods alone, the attorney general's office said. 

After killing her, the attorney general's office said Heck recruited Douglas Heim, who testified as a witness, to help move and bury Kahler's body at Elk Creek Access. Another witness, Terry Kellerman, testified that Heck had made claims of killing a girl. 

Years later, prosecutors said Heck told a cellmate he had raped and killed a girl at Fairview Gravel Pits and she had screamed.   

A court declared Kahler dead in 2009. Elk Creek Access, where she was allegedly buried, is prone to flooding and has changed much in 24 years. Searches for her body at and around that location are ongoing, the attorney general's office said.