David Heck, now 50 and living in Indiana, was charged on Monday, Sept. 21, in the 2002 rape and murder of Sabrina Kahler in Erie County, Attorney General Dave Sunday and Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz announced on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Heck was taken into custody at his Indiana home late Monday night following a presentment by Pennsylvania’s 54th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Kahler disappeared on June 24, 2002, four days after her 20th birthday. She was last publicly known to have been with Heck, and her disappearance remained unsolved for more than two decades. 

Investigators now say they know what happened.

Heck unexpectedly arrived at Kahler’s family’s home at 1203 East 3rd St. that day and asked her to go swimming, according to the grand jury presentment detailed by the Attorney General’s Office.

Heck was a cousin of Kahler’s boyfriend, Christopher Lee, and the three had previously gone swimming together, investigators said.

Kahler agreed to go with Heck, who drove them about 25 miles to Eagley Park.

While there, Heck became involved in a confrontation with his ex-girlfriend and some of her friends, prompting Heck and Kahler to leave for the Tasty Twist ice cream shop, according to investigators.

Heck, who was on probation and had been charged days earlier with assaulting his ex-girlfriend, called police about the confrontation. Officers responded and saw Heck and Kahler together at the ice cream shop.

That encounter has long been considered one of the last confirmed sightings of Kahler alive. Earlier accounts of her disappearance said Heck later claimed he dropped her at the West Erie Plaza movie theater, a story investigators could not corroborate. 

But prosecutors now say Heck instead drove Kahler to the Fairview Gravel Pits, a heavily wooded area containing bodies of water.

There, Heck raped and killed her, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

A fisherman later told investigators he heard a woman’s “blood-curdling scream” before a man matching Heck’s appearance emerged from the woods alone and briefly spoke with him, according to the grand jury evidence.

Years later, Heck allegedly admitted to a cellmate that he raped and killed a girl at the Fairview Gravel Pits and recalled that she screamed.

Investigators say Heck then went to a bowling alley and recruited an acquaintance, Douglas Heim, to help move Kahler’s body.

Heim told the grand jury he helped Heck move and bury Kahler at Elk Creek Access, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Another acquaintance, Terry Kellerman, testified that Heck made statements about killing a girl.

The Elk Creek Access area is prone to flooding and has changed significantly during the past 24 years. Investigators have continued searching the area and surrounding locations, but Kahler’s remains have not been recovered.

In the days after Kahler disappeared, her family and friends searched for her before she was reported missing.

Heck allegedly began avoiding people who questioned him about Kahler’s whereabouts, and police eventually found him hiding under blankets at a friend’s home, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Kahler was legally declared dead in 2009.

The break in the case came after Sunday’s newly created Cold Case Section worked with Erie investigators and presented evidence to the statewide grand jury. Previously reluctant witnesses provided testimony investigators say helped establish what happened to Kahler.

“A totality of evidence that included key grand jury testimony from previously-reluctant witnesses led to a single conclusion — that David Heck raped and murdered Sabrina Kahler 24 years ago,” Sunday said.

Sunday said investigators are still trying to answer one major question: where Kahler’s body is.

“This is a historical development that brings some answers for Sabrina’s loved ones and the Erie community, but it is not a day of celebration as we have not yet brought Sabrina home,” Sunday said.

Hirz said Kahler’s family and the Erie community never stopped seeking answers.

“Sabrina Kahler has never been forgotten,” Hirz said. “Her family never stopped remembering her, this community has never stopped seeking answers.”

Sunday formed the Attorney General’s Cold Case Section in January. Senior Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Schorn, who leads the section, will prosecute Heck alongside Hirz.

Kahler, known as “Bree” to her family, graduated from high school in 2001 and was remembered by relatives as friendly and tenderhearted. Swimming was among her favorite activities, according to a cold-case profile published months before the charges were announced.

Heck’s case will be prosecuted jointly by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and Erie County District Attorney’s Office.

Kahler’s body has still not been found.


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