A 21-year-old never made it to a Thanksgiving Eve church service in 1976, and nearly 50 years later DNA named the trucker police say killed her

A 21-year-old vanished on her way to a Thanksgiving Eve church service in 1976, and 50 years later DNA named the man police say was a serial killer

After nearly 50 years, authorities say they have identified the man responsible for the murders of two young women in Washington County, Pennsylvania. According to the Observer-Reporter, DNA evidence has linked a long-haul trucker, James Richard Clark Sr., to the killings of Susan Rush and Brenda Ritter. Clark, who died of natural causes in July 2023 at the age of 66, was never considered a suspect while he was alive.

Rush was 21 years old when she vanished on Nov. 25, 1976. She reportedly left her job at G.C. Murphy’s at the Washington Mall around 6:10 PM, intending to meet her family for a Thanksgiving Eve church service. When she failed to arrive home, her family reported her missing. Her brother discovered her car along North Avenue the next morning, and her body was found inside the trunk. An autopsy later confirmed she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

Less than six months later, on May 18, 1977, 18-year-old Brenda Ritter disappeared after leaving her boyfriend’s home in Chartiers Township during a severe thunderstorm. Per Observer-Reporter, her mother reported her missing the following morning when she didn’t get home. Police later found her abandoned Ford Pinto along Rankin Road. Later that afternoon, a state police helicopter spotted Ritter’s body on a hillside near Roupe Road. She had also been sexually assaulted and strangled.

It took decades of persistent investigation to find a break in the case

According to PEOPLE, the police submitted evidence from the Ritter case to the FBI national database known as CODIS in 2008, but didn’t get a match. The Washington County District Attorney’s Office and the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA program provided funding in 2021 and 2022 for updated cold-case DNA testing. DNA testing recently identified a Chicago cold case victim who had gone unnamed for five decades.

By May 2025, investigators confirmed that the same individual was responsible for both homicides. Cpl. James Petrosky of the Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit explained how the case was solved during a press conference, the Observer-Reporter noted.

“(DNA) testing identified that the same offender murdered both Susan Rush and Brenda Ritter. This testing confirmed there was a serial killer in Washington County during this time frame,” Petrosky stated. He added that “(Clark’s) DNA was left at both crime scenes. Through (several DNA labs) and with scientific advancements, we were able to develop a potential suspect, which was (Clark), and then we went through confirmatory DNA.”

PEOPLE reported that investigators are still trying to determine if Clark had any prior connection to the victims or if the encounters were random. “We don’t know at this point, and unfortunately he died, so we don’t have the opportunity to arrest him and interview him,” Petrosky said. Given Clark’s profession as a long-haul trucker, police believe there may be additional victims across the country.

Denise Ward, Ritter’s sister, told the Observer-Reporter that the news brought some answers. “It was a bit of a shock, but I think there’s some closure, that at least now we know,” Ward said. “But it doesn’t change anything; it doesn’t bring Brenda back. It’s been really hard since we found out because it brings it all up again.”

“If you go back to day one of both of the homicides, the evidence has been stringently maintained and secured in our evidence rooms,” Petrosky noted. “As technology advances we’re constantly revisiting these cases, trying to go through and see if there’s additional evidence that can be tested or retested and different disciplines of DNA testing or fingerprinting examination.” He emphasized that for his unit, these cases never go away.