YORK, Pa. (AP) - In November 1972, on a desolate stretch of road in southern York County, Anne Elder had a chance encounter with the Isaacs brothers, Carl and Billy.
Two months later, Elder was murdered, shot-gunned to death in her bedroom. No murder weapon was found. No physical evidence conclusively linked anyone to the homicide.
Carl Isaacs, however, had just escaped from jail. And he and Billy and two others had set off on what would become a multi-state killing spree. Their roles in the murders of a Maryland man and a family of six in Georgia were proven.
The state of Georgia executed Carl in 2003. Billy served time in Georgia and Maryland.
Police feel confident that Carl Isaacs killed Elder, but they could never prove that. And so, 44 years later, police have no hope of officially closing the case unless new evidence arises or new witnesses come forth.
If ever the term cold case applied to a murder investigation, this seems to be it.
’More than likely,’ he did it
At the request of the York Daily Record, Trooper Scott Denisch recently reviewed the Anne Elder murder file.
Denisch oversees unsolved crimes for Pennsylvania State Police. He explained that cold cases are not closed if the murder suspect is dead and there was not enough evidence to bring charges when the suspect was alive.
And that is the status of the Elder case, he said.
“More than likely, Mr. Isaacs is responsible for Anne Elder’s murder, but that is not conclusive,” Denisch said.
Despite investigators’ opinions, he said, “there is no physical evidence linking Carl to the case.”
The theory then and now is that Isaacs, who was 19 at the time, blamed Elder for his arrest in a string of burglaries soon after he met her in 1972. The murder, it is believed, was revenge.
Denisch said Trooper Mike Bonjo, the original investigator, “did a good job. He was thorough.” Now retired from the state police, Bonjo declined to be interviewed.
The encounter
The Isaacs brothers, who in their younger years lived in the Fairview Township area, had been burglarizing rural homes when they ran their car into a ditch near Elder’s house on Blue Ball Road, about a 10-minute back-roads drive to anywhere, according to archived York County state police reports.
Elder, 58, gave the teens a lift into Stewartstown, the nearest burg with any sizeable population, to get a tow truck.
In the meantime, someone stumbled across the Isaacs brothers’ car. Police investigated and found stolen property from four or five homes in the back.
Carl was arrested, and Billy, who was 15, was sent home to his mother in Baltimore.
Elder was among a handful of people subpoenaed to testify against Carl before a magistrate in district court.
Elder did not have to testify because Carl pleaded guilty and was sent to a rehabilitation facility in Harrisburg.
Carl walked away from that facility on Jan. 14, 1973. Eight days later, Elder was found murdered.
Police in Maryland picked Carl up in February 1973. He was jailed in another minimum security facility in Maryland.
Pennsylvania State Police questioned him about the Elder murder and he denied any knowledge or involvement. He told troopers that after he left the Harrisburg facility, a man he knew picked him up while he was hitchhiking south and gave him a ride to Towson.
More murders
During a riot at the Maryland jail where Carl was being held in May 1973, a group of inmates repeatedly raped him, according to the Associated Press.
After the riot was put down, he, his half-brother, Wayne Coleman, and George Dungee, all held at the same jail, escaped.
The trio made their way to Baltimore where they picked up Billy and hit the road.
On May 10, 1973, near McConnellsburg, Pa., the group kidnapped 19-year-old Richard Miller when he chased them after spotting them steal a neighbor’s pickup. They stole Miller’s car and he later was found dead in Maryland.
The quartet continued its way south. Four days later, in Donalsonville, Ga., the three prison escapees and Billy stopped at an empty house trailer in search of gas.
As they began burglarizing the trailer, members of the farm family who lived there came home, singly and in pairs. As they arrived, Carl Isaacs, Coleman and Dungee forced them into bedrooms at opposite ends of the trailer and shot them execution style.
The wife of one of the five men who were killed came looking for her relatives. She was raped by Isaac and the others. Billy, who later testified against his brother, denied taking part in the murders or the rape.
The woman was forced from the trailer and, in a wooded area some miles away, was raped again and killed.
After the six bodies were found, police located Carl, Billy and the other two men driving through West Virginia. Tired and hungry, they were taken into custody without incident.
Following trials and retrials, Carl Isaacs was sentenced to death — the electric chair at the time of his conviction. He ultimately was executed by lethal injection.
Coleman and Dungee escaped the death penalty and were sentenced to life in prison. Dungee died in 2006.
Billy Isaacs pleaded to lesser charges, served 20 years in prison, received parole and was returned to Maryland in 1993. Billy was sentenced to 60 years in prison for Miller’s murder.
Although records are not clear, it appears Billy was given credit against the 60-year sentence for the time he served in Georgia.
According to a Fulton County (McConnellsburg) News story, Billy was paroled by the state of Maryland in 1994.
He died in Florida in 2009 at age 51. Coleman, who police said was the one who shot Miller in the head execution style, was identified in Billy’s obituary as a surviving brother, but Carl was not mentioned as a relative.
Carl’s alibi
When Carl was executed, he was the longest-serving death row inmate in the United States.
While he was on death row in 2001, Pennsylvania State Police questioned him a final time about Elder’s murder.
“Carl did put himself at the scene,” Denisch said.
Carl told troopers that the driver who gave him a lift had driven to Elder’s home. He said the man entered the home and he stayed outside.
Troopers went on to question the man who gave Isaacs a lift. Denisch declined to identify him, citing the still-open status of the case.
The man confirmed that he picked up Carl and drove him to Towson. He said he did not go near the Elder residence and he did not kill Elder.
Denisch said there is no physical evidence to support Isaacs’ claim about the driver.
“What we have is just a serial killer giving a statement, ’It wasn’t me, it was him,’” Denisch said.
Isaacs also could not provide any motive or theory for why the driver would want to kill Elder.
“It’s just some cockamamie story Isaacs gave to the police,” Denisch said.
Denisch said that Carl Isaacs, despite that lack of evidence to definitively corroborate his involvement, remains the state police’s prime suspect.
“The feeling is he is responsible,” Denisch said.
The headlines: Media coverage 43 years ago
The York Daily Record covered the Elder murder and state police investigation as it unfolded.
The crime scene was described as “a local landmark on the lightly traveled Blue Ball Road in East Hopewell Township, at a spot known locally as Grove’s Mill.”
A headline on Daily Record’s front page on Jan. 27, 1973, read, “Help from public sought in murder.”
Pennsylvania State Police described the murder as “brutal” and “heinous.”
A statement attributed to the state police in a story said, “In particular, this appeal is directed to the residents of Fawn Grove RD3 area where this heinous crime was committed.”
The statement also said, “Anyone who saw, or spoke with Mrs. Elder either Sunday Jan. 21 or Monday Jan. 22, or anyone noticing anything strange, suspicious or unusual (including any vehicles parked at or near the victim’s home) is urged to contact the state police.”
The Daily Record reported that “friends and family” of the murder victim offered a $12,000 reward “good until Aug. 12 (1973).” Denisch said the reward did not generate any viable leads.
The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md., reported on May 20, 1973, “PSP investigating Carl Isaacs Jr., 19, in connection with the death of a former Maryland matron.”
According to other news coverage, Maryland’s now defunct Timber Ridge Bassets Club reportedly offered dogs in March 1973, to track Elder’s killer. No follow-up story on whether the dogs actually were used could be found.
Information
Anyone who believes he or she has information about Anne Elder’s murder that could help investigators can contact the Pennsylvania State Police at 717-428-1011 or PA Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS.
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Online:
https://bit.ly/2enpwxC
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Information from: York Daily Record, https://www.ydr.com
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