Nearly 50 years after two young women were strangled near Pittsburgh, police say DNA has finally named their killer, a trucker who was never a suspect and died a free man in 2023.
Story Highlights
- Pennsylvania State Police say DNA shows one man killed Susan Rush, 21, in 1976 and Brenda Ritter, 18, in 1977.
- Police named the killer as James Richard Clark Sr., a long-haul trucker who lived in the Washington, Pennsylvania, area.
- Clark was never a suspect in either case. He died of natural causes in 2023, so he will never face trial.
- Investigators say he may have more victims, because his trucking job took him all over the country.
Police Name a Killer Who Was Never on Their List
At a news conference on Wednesday, November 4, Pennsylvania State Police said DNA testing had solved two of Washington County’s oldest murders. Washington County sits southwest of Pittsburgh. The tests showed the same man killed Susan Rush and Brenda Ritter about six months apart in the 1970s, police said. They named him as James Richard Clark Sr. “The testing identified the same offender murdered both Susan Rush and Brenda Ritter,” said Cpl. James Petrosky, who leads the state police unit that reviews cold cases.
DNA links 'serial killer' to Pennsylvania cold case murders dating back to 1970s: police https://t.co/MyMcXdaieD
— Jim W (@jimboo696) November 7, 2026
The announcement matters because both families waited almost five decades for a name. Clark was never charged or tried. He died on July 17, 2023, at age 66, according to reports. That means no court will hear the evidence, and the finding stands as the conclusion of the state police investigation.
Two Young Women, Six Months Apart
Susan Rush was 21 and worked at a G.C. Murphy’s store at the Washington Mall. On Thanksgiving Eve in 1976, she left work around 6:10 p.m. to meet her family at church for a holiday dinner. She never arrived. Her brother found her car the next morning on North Avenue in Washington. Her body was in the trunk.
Brenda Ritter was 18. On May 18, 1977, she left her boyfriend’s home around 10:10 p.m. to drive home in a heavy thunderstorm. Her abandoned car was found the next morning on Rankin Road. That afternoon, a state police helicopter crew spotted her body on a hillside about three-quarters of a mile away. Police say both women were sexually assaulted and strangled.
How DNA Led Police to Clark
In 2008, investigators sent evidence from the Ritter case to a state police crime lab. The lab built a DNA profile of the unknown man and loaded it into CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database, which compares crime scene DNA against known offenders. Investigators searched it every week for years, but there was no match.
The break came after state police won federal grant money for cold-case DNA work in 2021 and 2022. That money paid for testing at outside labs. In May 2025, testing showed the DNA from the Rush and Ritter cases came from the same man, police said. Newer DNA science then pointed investigators to Clark, and more testing confirmed the match, according to reports.
Clark was 19 when Rush was killed and 20 when Ritter was killed. He lived in the Washington area at the time. Police have not said whether he knew either woman or picked them at random.
What the Families Say, and What Comes Next
Brenda Ritter’s sister, Denise Ward, said the news came as “a bit of a shock.” “I think there’s some closure, that at least now we know,” she told a local newspaper. “But it doesn’t change anything; it doesn’t bring Brenda back.” She said the family is grateful to the investigators, who she said have been very kind to them. Ritter’s mother, Hazel, is 92.
Petrosky said the testing “confirmed there was a serial killer in Washington County during that time.” Police are checking whether Clark is tied to other unsolved cases, including possible murders in other states. “Once a serial killer, always a serial killer,” Petrosky said. “I believe there could potentially be more victims out there.” Investigators have not named any other victims.
Petrosky also said the work was never about the police. “It’s about these victims and their families,” he said. Anyone with information about Clark or related cases is asked to contact the Pennsylvania State Police.
Sources:
kptv.com, edition.cnn.com, heraldstandard.com, wpxi.com, abc7.com
