One of the СŷƵ’s coldest homicide cases will take center stage in an Allentown courtroom this week as jurors will be asked to decide if DNA found on a discarded BB gun proves who killed an elderly widow in her North Whitehall Township home in 1989.
Michael Breisch, who will turn 67 on Friday, is standing trial in the slaying of 78-year-old Rose Hnath. The former Allentown man was arrested last year after DNA collected on one of the alleged murder weapons was traced to him.
Hnath was last seen alive on the morning of Jan. 21, 1989, doing yardwork outside her Second Street home. When she failed to show up for 4 p.m. Mass at Our Lady of Hungary Church in Northampton, family members went to check on her and found her body.
Police say Hnath was stabbed and beaten to death. Police searched the railroad tracks between the Lehigh River and Second Street and found a steak knife that matched knives from Hnath’s kitchen, court records say, as well as a pellet gun. The knife and the butt of the gun had blood on them.
An unknown person’s DNA was collected from the gun, but police could not match it to anyone at the time.
As forensic technology improved, the DNA was tested again and again. Eventually, the case caught the attention of a genetic genealogist, who was able to use the unidentified DNA to create a family tree and find potential relatives. One of those relatives, police say, was Breisch’s sister.
Breisch was questioned in April 2024 and gave police a sample of his DNA. After it matched the DNA from the crime scene, police say, Breisch was arrested in Ohio, where he had recently moved.
Breisch denies the charges. During a pretrial hearing Monday before Lehigh County Judge James T. Anthony, Breisch gestured animatedly while speaking with his attorneys but was not called to testify. He is being held in the county jail without bail.
Attorneys on both sides of the case have agreed to limit the number of autopsy and crime scene photos that will be shown to the jury. Prosecutors say the autopsy uncovered a triangular wound on Hnath’s head with black paint on it, consistent with the shape and color of the BB gun.
Police have not stated a motive for the slaying. Prosecutors want to show the jury a video of Breisch’s interview with police after he was arrested in which he allegedly spoke about his prior convictions for burglary. The defense has objected. Anthony told the lawyers that he will make a ruling on the video before it becomes an issue at trial.
Jury selection began Monday afternoon. The trial is expected to last about a week.
Laurie Mason Schroeder is a freelance writer.
