Dan Coyle remembers his late grandmother as “the kindest soul.”
Her unsolved slaying, a bizarre and violent attack in Arnold in 1993, continues to torment his family.
Stephanie Coyle, 74, was sexually assaulted and stabbed before her body was discovered by the landlord in her apartment behind Fourth Avenue. Her throat was cut, and a design was carved into her back.
“They supposedly have DNA samples, but we’re just never told what’s going on,” said Dan Coyle, who as a child lived in Tarentum before his family moved to Buffalo Township. He graduated from Freeport Area High School and now lives in Cleveland.
“We don’t know why it’s taking so long.”
The family’s hope was renewed this week after a college friend of Dan’s pledged $50,000 to help generate fresh leads.
Eric Brophy attended Clarion University with Coyle and owns a commercial air conditioning and refrigeration business in Texas.
He has kept tabs on the case through social media.
“I don’t specifically remember telling him about (the killing),” Coyle said. “I mean, it’s not something you go back to school and tell everyone. But we’ve loosely stayed in touch on Facebook, and I think his offer is just fantastic.”
Brophy’s offer will stand for five years, during which time he hopes someone will feel compelled to talk. The reward will be paid for tips that lead to an arrest and conviction.
“The purpose of the size of the pledge is to renew interest in her case and ideally incentivize (someone) to come forth and share what they know,” Brophy said.
The amount will be added to the $10,000 reward offered by the Coyle family for decades.
Advances in DNA and forensic technology have helped police across the country identify suspects in cold cases.
Melanie Jones, a spokesperson for Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli, said the case is still actively being investigated.
Jones said the DA’s office makes unsolved crimes a priority “in hopes of bringing a resolution to victims and their families.”
Dan Coyle’s father, also named Dan, doesn’t feel like that has happened in this case, though. He tries to maintain regular contact with Ziccarelli, but his calls go unreturned, he said.
The family hired a private investigator who developed a few new leads, but the information was not accepted by the DA’s office, the elder Coyle said.
The district attorney’s office sent Coyle’s DNA to a lab sometime after 2021. The tests have never yielded results, at least not any shared with the Coyle family, according to the elder Coyle.
Coyle said he has formed a relationship with Westmoreland County Detective John Clark, the lead investigator on the case, but is baffled as to why results are not available after five years.
“It’s disgusting,” he said. “I don’t understand why there’s no updates.”
Jones said county detectives continue to pursue genealogical testing in hopes of identifying a potential suspect.
The elder Coyle was in his 40s when his mother was brutally assaulted. Pushing for answers and keeping the case in the news has been a lot to carry, he said.
For years, he hung posters with his mother’s photo throughout her Arnold neighborhood, usually near the anniversary of her death.
“I just want to know who and why,” he said. “It would just be nice to have some answers.”
Arnold Mayor Shannon Santucci, herself a former officer and police chief in Arnold, said she’s hoping the family can find closure and peace of mind.
“I’m hopeful that (the family) will just keep pressing forward and that somebody will come forward and give them the information that they’re looking for,” Santucci said.
She said investigators at the time of Coyle’s death, including former Arnold police Chief Willie Weber, put their “heart and soul” into finding the killer. To her understanding, she said, all leads at the time fell through.
“If it were my mother, I would be looking as well — that’s got to be so disheartening for them,” Santucci said. “My heart goes out to them.”
Information sought
Anyone with information about the Stephanie Coyle homicide is asked to call the Westmoreland County detective bureau at 724-830-3287.