On the Fourth of July in 1995, 81-year-old Lucy Crable was found murdered in her home on Boas Street in Susquehanna Township, Pennsylvania. The scene discovered by a neighbor, who noticed the backyard gate open and a screen slit, was one of brutal violence. Ms. Crable was on her living room floor, having been severely beaten about the face, with bruises on her head suggesting it had been repeatedly struck against the floor. One of her own stockings was wrapped around her neck, indicating she had been strangled. Further investigation revealed she had also been sexually assaulted. Unlit matches were found scattered around her body.
The investigation into her death quickly led authorities to consider it part of a string of similar homicides in the area. A task force was formed, and suspicion soon fell upon Andrew Dillon, a parolee who was living just a half-block away from Ms. Crable. Dillon was already a suspect in the 1990 murder of a woman in Scranton who had been beaten, raped, and strangled in her apartment. A neighbor of Ms. Crable's had seen a man matching Dillon's description, wearing green workout pants with a black stripe and a white muscle shirt, entering her backyard on the day of the murder. This neighbor later identified Dillon from a photo lineup.
Although a suspect early on, it wasn't until September 1995 that Andrew Dillon was arrested for the Scranton murder. A search of the apartment he shared with his girlfriend uncovered a white jewelry box and a pendant with praying hands that belonged to Lucy Crable. The definitive link to the Harrisburg-area slayings came when DNA evidence from the crime scene of another victim, Neda Hoerner, was matched to Dillon.
Faced with mounting evidence, and to avoid a potential death sentence, Dillon eventually pleaded guilty to the murder of another woman, Goldy Snyder, as part of a deal with prosecutors. While the information available does not specify the exact outcome for the murder of Lucy Crable, the evidence strongly connected him to her death, and he was serving four consecutive life terms for the series of murders.
