Amish teen Linda Stoltzfoos was strangled, suffocated and stabbed
An Amish woman in Pennsylvania who vanished during a walk home from church was strangled, suffocated and stabbed in the neck, a coroner said Friday.
The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office used dental records to positively identify the body of Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, whose remains were found Wednesday wrapped in a tarp and buried on a railroad property near a business in the town of Gap, PennLive.com reported.
Stoltzfoos died from asphyxia due to strangulation and suffocation, Deputy Chief Coroner Eric Bieber said following an autopsy conducted early Friday. A stab wound to the teen’s neck also contributed to her death, Bieber said.
Justo Roberto Smoker, 35, of Paradise, was charged with felony kidnapping and false imprisonment in Stoltzfoos’ disappearance in July. Those charges were later upgraded to homicide in December.
District Attorney Heather Adams said prosecutors believe Smoker killed Stoltzfoos hours after kidnapping her as she walked home from church, according to the report.
Stoltzfoos was reported missing on June 21 – Father’s Day – after leaving church and walking home to change her clothes ahead of a youth group meeting. She was last seen in Bird-in-Hand while wearing a tan dress, white apron and a white cape, East Lampeter Township police have said.
Prior to Wednesday’s find, search efforts to locate the teen’s remains had exceeded more than 15,000 hours, officials said.
FBI officials had also offered $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case, which sparked an extensive search including tracking dogs, horses and drones.
Authorities declined to say at a press conference Thursday how they located Stoltzfoos’ body buried on a railroad property bordering a water treatment plant where Smoker worked at the time, PennLive.com reported.
Adams said investigators suspect that Smoker moved the teen’s body days after her death and buried it at the railroad property, WGAL reported.
Smoker’s car was previously spotted at a business in Ronks on the day Stoltzfoos vanished, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the station.
Investigators later found Stoltzfoos’ clothing, including a bra and stockings, buried in a wooded area behind the property in mid-July. Smoker’s DNA was found on one of the stockings, court documents show.
Smoker, who was arrested on July 10, remains held without bail Friday at the Lancaster County Prison, online records show. He has pleaded not guilty, LancasterOnline.com reports.
Sixteen months prior to allegedly killing Stoltzfoos, Smoker was released from prison in February 2019 after serving more than 12 years for a series of armed robberies in 2006 with his brother, the website reported.
