An Indiana man has been charged with raping and killing a 20-year-old a woman more than 24 years after he had taken her for a swim at a Pennsylvania swimming hole.
David Heck was charged on Monday, September 21, with murder, rape and kidnapping offenses in the 2002 death of Sabrina Kahler in Erie County, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said in a Tuesday, September 22 news release.
A yearslong investigation revealed Heck, 50, took Kahler for a swim at Eagley Park before he allegedly raped and killed her in the woods near Lake Erie on June 24, 2002, according to prosecutors. Ahead of Kahler’s death, she had been dating Heck’s cousin.
“A totality of evidence that included key grand jury testimony from previously-reluctant witnesses led to a single conclusion — that David Heck raped and murdered Sabrina Kahler 24 years ago,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement.
“This is a historical development that brings some answers for Sabrina’s loved ones and the Erie community, but it is not a day of celebration as we have not yet brought Sabrina home,” Sunday added. “Efforts will continue to answer that one remaining question of ‘where is she?’”
Though Kahler was legally declared dead in 2009, her remains have not yet been found, according to prosecutors.
The major development in the case came after the attorney general’s office’s Cold Case Section worked with investigators and a grand jury to secure charges against Heck.
Multiple witnesses, including Douglas Heim and Terry Kellerman, who were described as Heck’s acquaintances testified to the grand jury that they had been with Heck hours after he allegedly murdered Kahler, according to prosecutors.
“Their testimony, and other evidence, provided the full picture of what happened to Sabrina on June 24, 2002,” the attorney general’s office said.
That day, witnesses saw Kahler at a swimming hole in Eagley Park, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.
Earlier in the day, Heck made an unexpected appearance at Kahler’s home and asked if she wanted to swim, prosecutors said.
After Kahler agreed, he drove with her to Eagley Park, according to prosecutors. While there, a confrontation ensued between Heck, his ex-girlfriend, and his ex’s friends.
Heck and Kahler ultimately left and headed to a local ice cream shop, where he called police about his ex confronting him, prosecutors said. Officers then arrived and saw the pair at the business.
Heck, according to the attorney general’s office, had been on probation at the time and was “charged days earlier with assaulting his ex-girlfriend.”
Following the ice cream shop visit, Heck took Kahler to Fairview Gravel Pits near Lake Erie, where he is accused of raping and killing her.
A fisherman who had been in the area at the time reported hearing a woman’s “blood-curdling scream” and seeing a man who looked Heck emerge from the woods alone afterward, prosecutors said.
The fisherman reported the man matched an image of Heck that was shown in a TV newscast.
Heck is accused of admitting to a cellmate that he raped and murdered a girl at the Fairview Gravel Pits.
One of his acquaintances, Heim, testified to the grand jury that he helped Heck bury Kahler’s body at Elk Creek Access, an area known to flood, the attorney general’s office said. Police continue to search the site for Kahler’s remains.
Heck was arrested at his Indiana home on Monday, prosecutors said.
Information on whether he retained legal counsel wasn’t immediately available.
The attorney general’s office didn’t specify whether anyone else would be charged in relation to Kahler’s death.
