A vehicle containing the remains of Janet Walsh was pulled from the Allegheny River in Oakmont on Sunday, ending a 4½-year search for the missing Shaler woman that had rattled the community and intrigued cold case specialists.
While the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to make an identification, the family confirmed to TribLive news partner WTAE on Monday that the remains belong to Walsh, who was 70 at the time of her disappearance.
The breakthrough came not from law enforcement, but, as is often the case in river discoveries, a fisherman.
Fire crews responded to a report of an overturned vehicle at 5 p.m. Sunday near California Avenue, leading divers to find a second submerged vehicle, said Chief Joe Flanick of the Oakmont Volunteer Fire Department.
Authorities have not said which vehicle had Walsh’s remains, but emergency responders from the Monroeville Water Rescue Team and Blaxnox Fire Rescue worked with other agencies to remove at least one vehicle.
The vehicles, caked in mud and algae, had likely been in the river for years, divers said.
Walsh was reported missing around 8 p.m. Jan. 20, 2020, by her daughter, who had arrived at her mother’s house for a scheduled dinner, only to find her SUV missing and cellphone in the upstairs of her home on Dolores Drive.
Investigators shared a detailed timeline of Walsh’s whereabouts before she was reported missing as they sought the public’s help to find her.
Walsh was last seen by her daughter, Erin Duke, and son-in-law, Nathan Duke, while having dinner at her home Jan. 19, 2020. Earlier that day, a license plate reader had spotted her headed south on Mt. Royal Boulevard in her silver 2018 Chevy Trax as she returned from church services at Bethlehem Lutheran.
Her daughter last heard from her at 8 a.m. Jan. 20, 2020, as they made dinner plans for that evening.
Around two hours later, Walsh canceled a doctor’s appointment set for that afternoon, investigators learned.
As of January 2021, dive teams from multiple agencies had scoured the river four or five times, with a particular focus on the banks between the Highland Park and 31st Street bridges in Pittsburgh. Her vehicle was located Sunday about five miles up river from the Highland Park Bridge, near the Dormition of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church.
Adventures With Purpose, a sonar search and recovery dive team with a focus on cold cases, has conducted several underwater searches for Walsh since she went missing. During one of their expeditions in 2022, divers stumbled upon an unrelated vehicle with human remains, later identified as 54-year-old Tod DiMinno, a well-known Butler County businessman.
The group did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the developments in Walsh’s case.
Jack Troy is a TribLive reporter covering the Freeport Area and Kiski Area school districts and their communities. He also reports on Penn Hills municipal affairs. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in January 2024 after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh. He can be reached at jtroy@triblive.com.