On January 19, 1989, the body of 30-year-old white female Theresa Sciortino was discovered in her third-floor apartment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Neighbors had reported hearing disturbing thumping noises, prompting police to investigate. Upon arrival, authorities found Theresa Sciortino stabbed 25 times in her kitchen. Investigators also confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted.
The brutality of the attack and the nature of the wounds bore a chilling resemblance to a series of unsolved murders that had plagued the Frankford section of the city since 1985.
Theresa Sciortino, a white female, was the sixth known victim in what police began to suspect was the work of a serial killer. All the victims in the series were white women, many of whom lived near or frequented the Frankford Avenue area. Several had been sexually assaulted and all were stabbed or slashed with a sharp instrument. The pattern of violence and the geographic proximity of the crimes led authorities to theorize the presence of a serial offender, later dubbed the "Frankford Slasher."
Despite the growing list of victims, including white females ranging in age from their late 20s to late 60s, arrests were elusive. In 1990, a man named Leonard Christopher, who worked at a local fish market, was arrested and later convicted for the April 1990 murder of 46-year-old white female Carol Dowd. However, Christopher did not match witness descriptions of a middle-aged white man seen with several victims before their deaths. Moreover, there was no physical evidence linking him to the other murders, including that of 30-year-old white female Theresa Sciortino.
Adding to the controversy, another murder occurred in September 1990—after Christopher had already been incarcerated. The victim, 30-year-old white female Michelle Dehner, was killed in a manner consistent with the earlier slayings. Authorities labeled it a copycat killing, but doubts lingered about whether the true perpetrator had ever been caught. Leonard Christopher maintained his innocence until his death from cancer, and the murders of Theresa Sciortino and several other white female victims remain officially unsolved.
