23 years later, DNA used to charge suspect, 68, in indecent assault at Erie-area Walmart

The case was as disgusting as it was baffling.

More than 23 years ago, someone left a photograph of male genitalia and a plastic bag of seminal fluid on the dashboard inside a woman's car in the parking lot of the Walmart off Peach Street in Summit Township. Suspected seminal fluid was also rubbed on the steering wheel.

The case has finally been solved.

Using DNA evidence and a law that expands the statute of limitations in certain DNA cases, the Pennsylvania State Police have charged a 68-year-old Pittsburgh-area man with the second-degree misdemeanor of indecent assault and the first-degree misdemeanor of distribution of obscene materials in the incident, which happened Jan. 11, 2000.

The defendant, Jeffrey W. Bechtold, of Trafford, was convicted in 2022 of a similar incident that occurred in Clarion County in 2021. State police said they used DNA in that case to match the DNA from the seminal fluid in the 2000 case.

Bechtold was never identified as a suspect until the DNA match, which police made March 9, according to the criminal complaint filed against Bechtold on July 31 in the latest case.

The statute of limitations for the charges against Bechtold would normally be two years, unless the victim was a minor, according to the criminal complaint and its affidavit of probable cause. The victim in the case was 22 at the time.

But since 2004, state law has allowed the prosecution of certain misdemeanor and felony charges related to sexual offenses after two years if DNA evidence is "used to identify an otherwise unidentified individual as the perpetrator of the offense." In such cases, the prosecution can occur up to a year after the "the identity of the individual is determined," according to the law.

The trooper who filed the charges in the Bechtold case, Christopher Marghella, cited the 2004 change to the law in the criminal complaint.

Case unique for Erie County District Attorney's Office

Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz said the Bechtold case is new for Erie County. She said it marks the first time her office has prosecuted a case beyond the normal statute of limitations using the 2004 changes to the law regarding DNA identification of a suspect in a case that involves a sexual offense.

She said her office has prosecuted sexual assault cases beyond the normal statute of limitations when the cases involve minors, in which the statute of limitations is expanded. The 2004 changes to the law regarding DNA identification enlarged the statute of limitations no matter what the age of the victim.

"Due to advances in the technology, the statute allows us to pursue cases outside the statute of limitations," said Hirz, the district attorney since January 2022 and a prosecutor in the office since 2002. "It is another tool that allows us to prosecute older cases."

Marghella filed the charges against Bechtold in the office of Summit Township District Judge Brian McGowan. Bechtold was charged by summons, and McGowan scheduled a preliminary hearing for Sept. 5.

Suspect in Erie County case pleaded guilty in similar case in Clarion County

Bechtold declined to comment on the case when reached by telephone at his residence in Trafford, southeast of Pittsburgh. He confirmed that he had been convicted in a similar incident that occurred in Clarion County in November 2021. Police in that case identified Bechtold as a suspect using video surveillance ― a security measure not yet widespread in 2000.

In the 2021 case, Bechtold was accused of placing Polaroid-like photos of male genitalia on a woman's car parked at a Country Fair. He was charged in November 2021 with distribution of obscene materials as a first-degree misdemeanor. He pleaded guilty in October and was sentenced to a year of probation on Jan. 5, according to court records.

As part of the sentence, according to court records, Bechtold was ordered to undergo an evaluation for drugs and alcohol and ordered to "submit a DNA sample."

A 'hit' from DNA database opened up 2000 case

In the 2000 case, the victim reported the incident at Walmart to state police shortly after it happened, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint said the victim, a resident of Fairview Township, had driven her boyfriend's car to Walmart with a friend and parked outside the store.

In 2000, the Walmart was at 1900 Keystone Drive, off upper Peach Street in Summit Township. The current Walmart Supercenter is at 1825 Downs Drive, about one-quarter-mile south of the site of the former Walmart, which closed in October 2010.

While the woman was inside the Walmart in 2000, according to the complaint, someone — later identified as Bechtold — placed a Polaroid photo of male genitalia and the plastic bag of seminal fluid on the dashboard of the car and rubbed suspected seminal fluid on the steering wheel. The incident happened about 9:30 p.m., police said.

"The victim was frightened and drove home and contacted PSP-Erie later that night," the complaint said, referring to state police.

Police obtained DNA from the seminal fluid and ran the DNA through a nationwide database called CODIS, for Combined DNA Index System, which the FBI maintains. No match occurred, and the state police uploaded the DNA sample to CODIS, according to the criminal complaint.

The profile sat in CODIS without activity until March 9. Marghella on that date received "a CODIS hit" indicating the suspect in the 2000 case was Bechtold, state police said in a news release. Bechtold's known DNA sample had been uploaded to CODIS following his conviction in 2022, and that sample matched the sample from the 2000 case, police said.

Marghella got a search warrant for Bechtold's DNA and obtained it March 29, according to the criminal complaint. He sent that sample to the state police lab for analysis.

The lab report came back July 13. The report, according to the criminal complaint, "confirmed that the seminal fluid left in the victim's vehicle was a match to Bechtold's known DNA profile."

Marghella filed the charges.

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Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie-area Walmart incident from 2000 leads to indecent assault charge