More than 30 unsolved homicide cases in Cambria County, stretching back 40 years

Aug. 13—EBENSBURG, Pa. — Mizzon Unique Grandinetti was sentenced on Tuesday to life without parole for the Johnstown shooting death of Barron Thomas Grumbling in the city's Oakhurst section — a murder case that stretched out over more than five years.

But investigators across Cambria County continue to work to solve at least 30 homicide cases that span four decades — including six from 2022.

Statewide, 5,334 homicides occurred between 2012 and 2019, according to Project Cold Case, with 3,389 of the cases being solved for a 63.54% clearance rate in that timeframe.

In Cambria County, 56 homicides occurred between 2012 and 2019, with 37 of the cases being solved for a 66.07% clearance rate.

Johnstown police have investigated 38 homicides between 2012 and 2019, with 25 cases being solved for a 65.79% clearance rate, according to Project Cold Case's most recent data.

The Johnstown, West Hills Regional, Richland Township and Upper Yoder Township police departments all have at least one unsolved homicide case.

Individuals who have information on any ongoing cases may contact the investigating agency through the Cambria County non- emergency number at 814-472-2100 or by calling the Cambria County Detectives Bureau at 814-472-1680.

Individuals with information on cases in the northern part of the county can contact Pennsylvania State Police at 814-471-6500 and ask to speak to the current investigator on the case.

Here's some information on Cambria County's unsolved homicides:

1974: Barbara Mangus

Mangus disappeared in the early morning hours of Dec. 15, 1974, after leaving a holiday party at This Is It and 16 days passed until she was discovered by a hunter near the Hinckston Run Dam.

Mangus had attended the party with her husband Walter, but left around 12:30 or 12:45 a.m. after the couple had an argument, according to Tribune-Democrat archives. At the time, her husband told police he left the party an hour later when the band stopped playing.

Mangus had reportedly left her mother's car at This Is It and walked to the couple's West End home. More than 20 individuals reported seeing a woman fitting Mangus' description and described the clothing she was seen wearing at the party.

What is presumed to be the last sighting of Mangus was in the area of Garfield Street, which was about three blocks from her Corinne Street home.

She was found with a belt from her coat around her neck, which then-Coroner Joseph Govekar said was used to strangle her. Male DNA was found on Mangus, but it was unknown if she had been sexually active before the crime or if she had been sexually assaulted.

1978: Maxine Andrews

Police believed Maxine Ellen Andrews was killed by a lone gunman in a vehicle at 9:30 p.m. Nov. 6, 1978, outside Ace's Lounge in Johnstown's Cambria City neighborhood.

News reports at the time indicate that Andrews arrived at an apartment above Ace's between 6 and 7 p.m., and later she and a 20-year-old woman were preparing to leave when a man approached their vehicle from behind.

The name of the other woman, who was in the driver's seat of a car, was spelled multiple ways in news accounts — Jerry (or Jerri) Swartzenstruver (or Swartzentruver).

Officers at the time said Swartzenstruver was in the process of backing up when she saw a man with a gun, dove down onto Andrews' lap and then heard one shot and believed she heard another.

In a subsequent interview with police, the woman reportedly said she only saw a gun, not a man.

Andrews, who was in the passenger's seat, was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:55 p.m., a single slug having struck her in the neck, severing her spinal cord.

In a July 2020 interview, Andrews' brother, the Rev. Clarence J. Washington, told The Tribune-Democrat that he heard that his sister's sexual orientation or a love triangle were potential motives for the murder.

1981: William Nedwreski

A stabbing took the life of 33-year-old Cambria Township coal miner William Nedwreski in February 1981.

He was last seen alive shortly after midnight on Feb. 17, 1981, after working an eight-hour shift at the former Beth Energy Mine 32.

According to Tribune-Democrat archives, Nedwreski's body was dumped over what is known as the Winterset Bridge, which carried Manor Drive over railroad tracks where his body was discovered by a train crew near the tracks around 10 a.m.

Nedwreski was an Air Force veteran who had served in Vietnam. He was a married father of two children.

He apparently was on his way home when he was stopped and killed.

Nedwreski's new red Chevy pickup truck was located, parked in the middle of Ebensburg in a lot across from the Cambria County Courthouse.

Authorities said he had been stabbed 13 times, including a fatal wound to the heart, defensive injuries on his arms and several jabs to his face.

A 2006 article indicated that an FBI review of the murder several years prior suggested that the killing was a crime of passion, but investigators had never pinpointed a motive.

Nedwreski's wallet was found intact on his body, ruling out robbery as a motive, police said.

He was reported missing by his wife after he failed to return home from work. Hours after his body was found, police located his truck.

It is believed by police that Nedwreski was killed at a location other than the bridge as the only blood found there was on a railing, and there was no blood in his truck.

1992: Joseph A. Buhek Sr.

Joseph Buhek Sr., 82, was found on the floor of his Johnstown apartment with a 3 1/2 inch dagger in his neck on Feb. 25, 1992. Three weeks later, he died from his injuries.

Charges were never filed in the stabbing, but police had suspected that Buhek was killed by Ernie Simmons, who had lived in the same apartment building as Buhek and who called police to report that he went to the apartment to pick up mail and found Buhek.

Simmons was later on death row for the 1992 murder of Anna Knaze, 80, of Johnstown, when a higher court in 2009 ordered a new trial.

Simmons accepted an offer by the Cambria County district attorney's office for a third- degree murder plea, which got him out of prison with credit for time served. He was placed on probation by Cambria County Judge Timothy Creany for six months to 10 years, but was sent back to prison after he allegedly made threats in front of a number of people.

He has never been charged in Buhek's murder.

1996: Beth Ann Bodenschatz

Beth Ann Bodenschatz, 36, a married mother of four, was killed in her Croyle Township home in the daylight hours of Jan. 12, 1996.

It was reported that she died of a single gunshot wound to the head, but more shots were fired during a struggle, according to Tribune-Democrat archives.

The investigation through the years has included scores of interviews and even a search in 2003 by the state police, assisted by emergency management personnel and state forestry workers, for the murder weapon, believed to be a .40-caliber Glock handgun.

On the day of the murder, police said five spent .40-caliber cartridges were found in the bedroom where she was killed and one live round was beneath her body.

Bodenschatz was a registered nurse in the ambulatory surgery department at the former Lee Hospital in Johnstown.

She and her husband, Michael, were married in August 1981 and had four children.

1996: Dakota Blu Cunningham

When Dakota Blu Cunningham died on Jan. 29, 1996, she was just 69 days old.

She was found unresponsive in her Susquehanna Township home and died later at Miners Hospital. The child was believed to be suffocated and sexually abused.

A coroner's inquest was used in November 1996, and the jury determined that the child had been abused prior to her death, but the jury was unable to determine whether the abuse caused her death or by whom she was abused.

2001: Gregory Alan Meray

Gregory Alan Meray, 40, died from carbon monoxide poisoning on May, 12, 2001, in his girlfriend's Northern Cambria home after it caught fire.

Meray, who had lived with his parents but was staying with his girlfriend, Julia Markovich, was the only person at the residence at the time of the fire, according to Tribune-Democrat archives.

The fire was later ruled arson by a state police fire marshal and Meray's death was then ruled a homicide.

Several weeks after the fire, Meray's grandmother, Mary Meray, told the Tribune-Democrat that she was not aware of her grandson having any enemies and that he "only sort of kept to himself."

2005: Constance M. Krieger

Authorities responded to calls of a fire on Jan. 21, 2005, at the Venue Avenue home of Constance M. "Connie" Krieger, 55, in Upper Yoder Township, where she was later found trapped inside her home.

She died of smoke inhalation and burns.

Her death was later ruled a homicide. Authorities said she had been prevented from escaping the house.

Earlier this year, Tiffany Burkett, one of Krieger's two daughters, said that there were several incidents in the months prior to her mother's death that may be related. Krieger had been run off the road, and her home had been broken into, but nothing of value was taken, Burkett said.

At the time of Krieger's death, she was in the process of what Burkett described as a "bad" divorce from her husband, Gary Krieger, of Johnstown. Police spoke with him after the murder, and his attorney at the time, Robert Davis Gleason, insisted his client was cooperating with police.

There is no telephone listing for Gary Krieger, although as of a 2015 interview with investigators, he was believed to still be residing in the area.

Earlier this year, Upper Yoder Township police said that they had planned to review the case, including seeing what evidence could be sent for testing that was not previously available.

2012: Vincent Bloom

Vincent Bloom, 38, was robbed by two men in his Norton Road garage on July 20, 2012, and was then struck in the head with a handgun, tied up with an electrical cord, doused with gasoline and set on fire.

Bloom died several days later at West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh with third-degree burns over 70% of his body.

At the time of the incident, police said that Bloom told them he was working in his garage around 11 p.m. when two Black men, both wearing hoods, entered.

He was able to tell police that he was struck on the head with a handgun by one of the robbers and then was tied up with an electrical cord after falling to the floor.

The men took his money, poured gasoline on him and set him on fire before fleeing, police were told. Bloom said that he was able to free himself and turned on a garden hose to put out the fire. Family members heard his cries for help and called authorities, police said at the time.

According to police, Bloom reportedly worked alone in his garage, repairing automobiles as a side business.

2013: Robert T. Williams Jr.

Richland Township police believed 38-year-old Robert T. Williams Jr. was a target of a home invasion and was shot after two men entered his Lydia Street home around 8 p.m. on Jan. 3. 2013.

A young boy who allegedly witnessed the murder told police that it was two Black males who shot Williams.

Shortly after Williams' death, former Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski said that he died of two gunshot wounds to the head.

2013: Kevin Burt, Alicia Welborn

Kevin Burt, 33, and Alicia Welborn, 35, were found dead of gunshot wounds in the Benshoff Street duplex where they lived in Johns-town's Minersville neighborhood on Oct. 9, 2013.

The pair were found by an individual who was later arrested for having marijuana in his possession, but was not considered a suspect, and police said at the time that there were signs of drug use at the residence.

Both victims had prior criminal arrests.

Then-city police Chief Craig Foust said at the time it was unknown if any of those factors were connected to their murders.

Cambria County Coroner Jeffrey Lees pronounced both victims dead at 10:18 p.m.

At the time of the incident, Lees said that the victims were found on the first floor of the home with multiple gunshot wounds to the head.

2014: Jarrett Smith

Jarrett R. Smith, 32, of Ebensburg Road in the city's Prospect section, had been dead for several hours according to Lees when he was found by family.

Lees told The Tribune-Democrat that an autopsy showed that Smith likely was shot in the early morning hours of Aug. 18, 2014, perhaps as early as just after midnight. He had been found when an unidentified member of his family went to his house after he failed to respond to repeated attempts to reach him by telephone.

According to Lees, Smith died from a gunshot wound to the chest and was shot multiple times.

2014: Zachary Andrews

Zachary Andrews, 21, died of a gunshot wound after he and another man were shot when they came back to a residence in the 700 block of Grove Avenue in the city's Moxham section on April 13, 2014.

The other man, Carlos Laguer, survived his injuries.

Two men who allegedly shot Andrews and Laguer fled the scene in a Mitsubishi.

One individual was charged in Andrews' murder, but later had those charges dropped after prosecutors decided there wasn't enough evidence to proceed to trial.

2015: Carol Ashcom

Carol Ashcom, 30, was found dead inside her Virginia Avenue home in Lower Yoder Township on March 11, 2015. Police responded to a reported assault shortly after 11 a.m. and found Ashcom in a pool of blood.

She had been shot multiple times in the upper torso and was pronounced dead in her home just before noon.

Shakir Smith was convicted of first-degree murder and criminal solicitation to commit first- degree murder on Sept. 30, 2020, by a Cambria County jury that found him guilty of ordering Ashcom's death after her cooperation in 2014 with narcotics agents from the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General led to his arrest and incarceration on drug charges.

While an individual may have been named as the potential shooter in Smith's grand jury presentment, detectives with the West Hills Regional Police Department say that Ashcom's case is still open as they are still actively looking for her shooter.

2016: Kyfen Jones

Kyfen Jones, 24, died from multiple gunshot wounds around 9 p.m. on Nov. 9, 2016, along Edith Avenue in the West End section of Johnstown.

A second man, Ravaunn Hardrick, then 17, was injured in the shooting and was taken to Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown with a gunshot wound to the leg, authorities said at the time.

At a press conference after the shooting, then-District Attorney Kelly Callihan said Hardrick and Jones were walking in an alley when they encountered two people who shot at them. Two weapons and shell casings were later recovered by police, she said.

2017 : Kareem Brandon

Kareem Lee Brandon, 21, of Johnstown, was found shot along Grove Avenue in the city's Moxham section on Feb. 1, 2017.

At the time of Brandon's death, then-Johnstown police Capt. Jeff Janciga, who was then serving as interim police chief, said that the department's detectives were being assisted by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office in the investigation.

Johnstown police responded to reports of shots fired on the 400 block of Grove Avenue shortly after 9:30 p.m. They found Brandon on the sidewalk in front of a house.

Brandon was transported to Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center by emergency personnel where he died at 10:16 p.m., Lees said at the time.

The coroner ruled the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death to be homicide. Initial reports indicated that Brandon had been shot in the head, Lees said in 2017.

2017: Marquise 'Bam' MartinJust before 10 p.m. on Dec. 9, 2017, Marquise "Bam" Martin, 13, was found dead on the front porch of a home on the 700 block of Oak Street in Hornerstown.

During a press conference held shortly afterward, then-Johnstown police Chief Robert Johnson said officials had "good reason to believe" that Martin's homicide was connected to that of Tavion C. Williamson, 18, who was shot and killed six days prior, on Dec. 3, also in the city's Hornerstown neighborhood.

According to Lees, an autopsy showed that Martin died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Lees said that Martin was shot at around 8:04 p.m. on Messenger Street.

Johnson said Johnstown police officers responded to reports that shots had been fired and found a weapon and several shell casings in that area.

He said that two teenagers who were seen jumping fences nearby were taken into custody. He added that it was later learned that the teens were with Martin at the time of the shooting, but that they didn't come forward with that information until hours later.

Johnson said it was nearly two hours later that a resident arrived home and found Martin's body on the front porch of her Oak Street home, approximately a block and a half from the site where the shell casings were found.

2018: A'Von Perry

Just after 1 p.m. on May 15, 2018, A'Von Perry, 20, of Johnstown, was found fatally shot in some brush along Remora Place off of Cooper Avenue.

Information such as the caliber of the weapon or the number of times he was shot was not released due to the pending investigation.

Johnson said he could not comment on whether Perry was killed at the spot where he was found or if his body was transported to the location during a press conference after the death.

2018: Jason Neill

The body of Jason T. Neill, 20, was found around midnight in the Moxham section of the city on Feb. 1, 2018.

According to the Cambria County 911 center, a report of shots fired in the 100 block of Wheat Street came in just before midnight.

Lees said shortly after the incident that Neill was gunned down in an alley just off Cypress Avenue and was pronounced dead at the scene around 1 a.m of multiple gunshot wounds.

2018: Abdul Wright

Abdul Wright, 19, was yet another young Johnstown-area man found dead of gunshot wounds in Johnstown's Hornerstown section.

According to Lees, Wright died from multiple gunshot wounds approximately two days before his body was discovered in the 500 block of Oak Street by a Hornerstown resident.

Johnson said that two days prior to the discovery of Wright's body, police responded to a report of shots fired in the Oak Street area, but found nothing suspicious when they arrived. He added that Wright's body was found on a partially abandoned property and couldn't be seen from the road.

2018: Darese Coleman

Darese Coleman, 28, of Johnstown, was shot in the Oakhurst section of Johnstown on Oct. 31, 2018.

Coleman's body was found face down on Beatrice Avenue around 8:30 p.m., police said.

Lees said Coleman died from multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:21 p.m.

No weapons or drugs were found at the scene, police said.

2019: Dashaun Charles

Dashaun Charles, 18, died after he was shot in an alley in Dale Borough on Aug. 29, 2019.

According to Lees, an autopsy showed that Charles died from "multiple gunshot wounds."

Charles' obituary listed several other homicide victims and targets of shootings as relatives, but at the time Johnstown police said that they did not believe that the cases were related.

2021: Jesus Santiago

Jesus R. Santiago, 51, was found dead inside his Cliff Street home in Dale Borough in the early morning hours of July 14, 2021. Lees said Santiago was shot several times and was pronounced dead in the basement of the residence just before 3 a.m.

Santiago was a native of Puerto Rico who had been living in the mainland United States since 2000, Lees said.

He had been a Johnstown resident for several years, having moved into Dale Borough earlier that spring, the coroner added.

2021: Messiah Rhodes

In the afternoon hours of Aug. 15, 2021, Messiah Rhodes, 29, was shot in the Moxham section of the city.

Rhodes, a Philadelphia native, had been living in Johnstown for about a year when the incident occurred.

Police responded to a call of shots fired just before 3 p.m. when they found Rhodes deceased in a vehicle.

Lees reported that Rhodes was found sitting in the driver's seat of a parked vehicle along Lunen Street near Park Avenue, which was outside the residence he had been living in, and that he had died from multiple gunshot wounds.

2022: Jaydin Sanderson

Jaydin Sanderson, 19, of the Ferndale area, was found on New Year's Day 2022 in a vehicle in the Hornerstown section of Johnstown.

She died of a gunshot wound, Lees said.

He added that she had been dead for "several hours" before Johnstown police were notified shortly after 11 a.m. of an unresponsive person in a vehicle in the 600 block of Wood Street.

When officers arrived at the location and found Sanderson, her body was in the driver's seat, slumped over into the passenger seat of the black Chevrolet sedan.

2022: Terrell Green

Terrell Green, 41, died of multiple gunshot wounds after he was shot in the Hornerstown section of Johnstown on Feb. 12, 2022.

The incident occurred on the 900 block of Ash Street near the former Clubhouse Bar.

Green was transported to Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center by 7th Ward Ambulance after responders found him in Hornerstown.

According to Lees, he was pronounced dead at 3:48 a.m.

Green was a Philadelphia resident until moving to the Johnstown area about a year ago.

2022: Timothy Harrison

Timothy Harrison, 42, of Johnstown's Moxham section, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds after a single- vehicle crash on Feb. 18, 2022.

Harrison was found around 3:40 p.m by the Johnstown Police Department after the vehicle he was in was wrecked near Charles Street at 500 Place in Moxham.

Once Harrison was out of the vehicle, first responders discovered he had multiple gunshot wounds, and he was taken to Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, where he succumbed to his injuries.

2022: Raheem Brantley Raheem Brantley, 35, was killed in a shooting at a residence at the 500 block of Dorothy Avenue in the West End section of the city.

The incident occurred before 11 p.m. and police said that Brantley was found in an upstairs bedroom of the apartment.

Lionel Mickens, 61, and Britney Rummell, 36, were found shot in Mickens' Hornerstown home on April 30 along with Mickens' deaf pitbull, Daniel.

Authorities believed the pair were killed sometime between April 27 and 29.

According to Lees, both Mickens and Rummell died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Johnstown Police Department Capt. Chad Miller has said that department detectives are awaiting laboratory findings on several pieces of evidence in the case.