Pennsylvania State Police say DNA evidence links long-haul trucker James Richard Clark Sr. to the 1976 killing of Susan Rush and the 1977 killing of Brenda Ritter, two Washington County cases that remained unsolved for decades. Clark died in 2023, before authorities announced the identification, according to WTAE and WPXI.
Two killings, linked by evidence
Rush, 21, disappeared in 1976 after leaving a local shopping mall. She was later found dead in her car; investigators determined she had been sexually assaulted and strangled, WPXI reported. Ritter was last seen in May 1977 after leaving her boyfriend’s home in Chartiers Township during a storm. Her car was found the next morning, and a state police helicopter later located her body off Roupe Road, about three-quarters of a mile away. Baldwin, PA Patch reported that officials said Ritter had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
The link between the cases emerged over a long forensic timeline. Evidence from Ritter’s homicide went to a crime lab in late 2008 for an offender profile, but produced no match at the time. State police later received grant funding for cold-case DNA testing in May 2022 and completed additional testing in May 2025, according to WPXI. Authorities say DNA from both scenes matched Clark.
A match does not answer every question
The identification does not, by itself, establish whether Clark was responsible for other killings. Investigators are examining possible links to additional victims, but no further cases have been confirmed, WPXI reported. The FBI distinguishes forensic genetic genealogy—which uses non-law-enforcement DNA databases and different markers—from CODIS. That general distinction does not show which method investigators used in Clark’s case, according to the FBI.
Other cases show how DNA work has identified suspects years after a killing, but they are examples rather than evidence of a connection to Clark. In a separate Pennsylvania case, DNA genetic genealogy identified Scott Grim in the 1988 killing of Anna Kane, whose body was found in Perry Township, NBC News reported. The FBI’s description of different DNA methods is also a reminder not to assume that all such identifications use the same technique.
The broader investment in cold-case DNA work is substantial, though it does not establish what paid for the testing in these murders. The Bureau of Justice Assistance says its Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA program has made 70 awards totaling $35,163,239 since it began in fiscal year 2019; those program-wide figures do not identify funding for the Rush or Ritter investigation, according to the Bureau.
