Who Killed Holly? 35 Years Later, Theory, No Evidence in Cold Case Murder

A Lehigh Valley prosecutor says police have a theory about who may have been responsible for the stabbing death of a teenager three and a half decades ago.

But Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli says there isn't evidence that would allow them to arrest a suspect in the 1979 murder of 17-year-old Holly Branagan inside her Bethlehem, Pa. home.

Morganelli told The (Easton) Express-Times that he doesn't think he knows any more today than he did before about “who committed this murder.”

The high school senior was stabbed 18 times in her her Pine Top Trail home home with a kitchen knife. Police have called it a crime of passion and said they believed Branagan knew her attacker.

They have re-examined the case repeatedly over the years, most recently in a 2010 grand jury proceeding.

Click here for more on the Branagan cold case.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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