Skip navigation
sponsored by 

Police have suspect in Pa. boy’s 1985 death

Remains of 13-year-old were exhumed for forensic tests

Video: Crime & courts  
Lockup Pendleton Juvenile Extended Stay: Under Pressure
As one of the largest maximum-security juvenile prisons in the country, Pendleton is responsible for educating and rehabilitating teenage gang members, sex offenders and juveniles with mental health issues for the Indiana Department of Correction. And on any given day inside the razor wire fences, anything can happen. During our 6 months inside, we learned some days can be even more chaotic than most...As one official says, "When it rains, we don’t have enough buckets.

updated 9:20 p.m. ET July 3, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - Police have a suspect in the 1985 killing of a teenage boy whose body was found in a thicket months after he left home on a bicycle, a coroner said Thursday.

The death of 13-year-old David Reed had long been labeled undetermined but was reclassified a homicide Thursday after a review of his exhumed remains.

State police, acting on new evidence they have not disclosed, exhumed the body in January and had forensic anthropologists perform new tests.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement

The suspect is still alive, but the motive remains unclear, said Schuylkill County Coroner Joseph Lipsett. Until an arrest is made, investigators are not releasing specifics about how the boy died.

"This (ruling) was one of the most significant hurdles," said Cpl. Robert S. Betnar, the lead investigator, whom the family credits for the recent progress. "Without it being a homicide, technically there's no crime, and we couldn't make an arrest."

The boy's body was found about a half-mile from his bicycle in a remote thicket on the edge of his hometown of Schuylkill Haven, 75 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sponsored links

Resource guide

Get Your 2008 Credit Score

Find a business to start

Try for Free

Search Jobs

Find Your Dream Home

$7 trades, no fee IRAs

Find your next car