A 41-year-old cold case out of Westmoreland County has an arrest attached to it: James Kruczek, 61, of West Mifflin, was taken into custody this week in connection with the 1985 stabbing death of 16-year-old Lottie Jo Gunn, an Ohio teenager whose body was found in North Huntingdon Township.
Kruczek is charged with criminal homicide, according to the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office, which said detectives arrested him this week. He was set to be arraigned Thursday evening, as reported by WTAE. As with any criminal charge, Kruczek is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Gunn was found dead on May 24, 1985, according to the DA's office, which says her body was located along Turner Valley Road in North Huntingdon Township. WTAE's reporting places the location on Turney Valley Road in North Huntingdon that same month; the exact road spelling has not been independently confirmed. The district attorney's office says she sustained stab wounds to her abdominal region and that her death was ruled a homicide.
An Acquaintance's Account Pointed Investigators Toward Kruczek
According to the district attorney's office, an acquaintance of Kruczek told investigators that he had picked up a female, killed her, and left her body in the Coulter area of North Huntingdon Township in the spring of 1985. That account became part of the evidence that eventually led detectives back to Kruczek 41 years later.
Investigators sent the victim's clothing to the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Laboratory, where a DNA profile was developed, per the same account. They later obtained a search warrant for a sample of Kruczek's DNA, and the lab returned a match between his sample and the DNA found on Gunn's clothing, the DA's office said.
'An Excruciating Four Decades' for Gunn's Family
Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said Gunn's family had waited a long time for this moment. “Lottie Jo's family waited an excruciating four decades for answers. While her parents are no longer with us to hear those answers,” Ziccarelli said, according to the district attorney's office. Ziccarelli also praised detectives for their groundwork in pursuing justice in the case.
Part of a Broader Push to Reexamine Cold Cases
The arrest comes amid a wider effort in Westmoreland County to apply modern DNA technology to cases that had gone cold. The county's district attorney announced that the office hired Texas-based Othram Inc. to evaluate DNA samples from older cases where investigative progress had stalled, according to TribLive. That work is being paid for through a $50,000 state grant intended to review evidence in as many as 10 unsolved violent crimes, TribLive reported, and investigators have started reviewing older case files to determine which should be sent to Texas for testing. Ziccarelli told the outlet that Westmoreland and Bucks counties are the only two Pennsylvania county district attorney's offices currently working with the lab.
Westmoreland County isn't alone in seeing old DNA evidence finally produce answers. Pennsylvania State Police announced on Wednesday that DNA evidence identified James Richard Clark Sr. as responsible for the 1976 and 1977 Washington County homicides of Susan Rush and Brenda Ritter, according to the Observer-Reporter. DNA testing in May 2025 showed that offender profiles from the two homicides matched, the paper reported, but Clark died of natural causes in July 2023 and will never face trial. Investigators said there may be more victims, since Clark traveled the country as a trucker.
