On 22 March 1979, Helen E. Horn, a widow, returned home from an evening meeting of the Gratz Historical Society. Within minutes of entering her house, she was on her dining room floor – naked and dead in a pool of blood. Although someone was charged with her murder, at trial, he was acquitted. The crime was never solved.
This post is one of 19 chronicling the discovery of the body, the arrest and trial of the suspect, and his acquittal. The story is told through articles that appeared in a Pottsville newspaper.
Pottsville Republican, April 25, 1979.
Suspect arrested in Gratz murder
By SUE BOOKS, Staff Writer
An eighteen-year old man who lived in the neighborhood of Mrs. Helen E. Horn, was arrested Friday in connection with the widow’s brutal murder the night of March 22.
Gary W. Rank, Market Street, was arrested about 7 p.m. by Sgt. Joseph A. VanNort, head of state police troop H crime investigation unit.
Rank was arraigned before District Magistrate Francis Reichenbach of Elizabethville and committed to Dauphin County prison without bail, VanNort said.
A preliminary hearing has been set May 4 at Richenbach’s [sic] office. If the case goes to trial it will be held in the Dauphin County courthouse, Harrisburg.
The body of Mrs. Horn, 68, was found about 7:30 a.m. March 23 by Mary Hepler, her cleaning woman, in Mrs. Horn’s home at 343 Market St. She died of strangulation and multiple scull fractures.
The arrest stemmed from evidence found at the scene said VanNort. Police last night searched Rank’s car and home, which is about three tenths of a mile west of Mrs. Horn’s home, VanNort said.
Mrs. Horn was murdered after she came home from an historical society meeting at the municipal building in the neighborhood. As treasurer of the group, she had collected $90 from the group for a trip. Police would not say whether the money was missing from her home.
Mrs. Horn lived alone. Her husband, a doctor, died about 15 years ago.
Police would not say whether Rank had confessed to the murder or whether a motive had been discovered. Police also would not say whether any connection had been found between this murder and another brutal murder of an elderly woman in Tremont two years ago. Jeane E. Barr, a dentist’s widow and friend of Mrs. Hon’s, was brutally murdered in Tremont, 20 March 1977.
VanNort said he thought Rank attended Upper Dauphin High School in Eliizabehville. However, he presently is not enrolled and the school office refused to say whether he had dropped out, graduated or never attended.
Rank was employed by the Mon Mar Manufacturing Co., Inc., in Gratz.
Trooper Samuel Strausser and trooper John Holtz from troop H assisted VanNort in the investigation as did Sgt. Kovak and Trooper Santai of the Lykens state police and Richard Lewis, Dauphin County assistant district attorney.
____________________________________
For all other parts of this story, see: Who Killed Helen Horn?
News clipping/article from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.