![\"Pennsylvania](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/c7beaea0-9473-4be8-8dc4-e181d30f9bec.jpeg\" "\\"Pennsylvania")
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Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announces the filing of charges in the 2002 disappearance of Erie resident Sabrina Kahler, then 20. Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz, far left, and Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah, far right, joined Sunday at a news conference at Erie City Hall on Sept. 22.<\/p>\n
TIM HAHN\/ERIE TIMES-NEWS<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Network, Reuters<\/p>\n
David S. Heck always maintained that he dropped Sabrina Mae Kahler off at the West Erie Plaza and gave her $10 to see the movie “Lilo & Stitch” at what was then the Plaza Cinemas after the two had gone swimming in western Erie County on June 24, 2002.<\/p>\n
But authorities now charge that Kahler never made it to the plaza.<\/p>\n
Investigators say Heck raped and killed the 20-year-old Erie woman, whose body has never been found.<\/p>\n
In a resolution to one of northwestern Pennsylvania’s most notable cold cases, Pennsylvania State Police have filed first-, second- and third-degree murder charges, along with felony counts of rape and kidnapping against Heck, 50, in the disappearance and death of Kahler.<\/p>\n
Heck, whose address was listed on his criminal docket sheet as Brazil, Indiana, was in custody in Indiana Sept. 22 and was awaiting a return to Erie County to face the charges, officials reported.<\/p>\n
The state police filed the charges on Sept. 21 after the case was brought before a statewide investigating grand jury, and the case is docketed in the office of Springfield Township District Judge Jeff Gadley, according to court records.<\/p>\n
The case against Heck was outlined as Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz, state police, the Erie Bureau of Police and others gathered at Erie City Hall at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 22 for a news conference.<\/p>\n
“To Sabrina’s family, I hope this arrest brings them some sense of justice and solace. But I know, and we all know, that this isn’t over. David Heck is presumed innocent and will have his day in court, and Sabrina is still not home,” Sunday said.<\/p>\n
Efforts to locate her are ongoing, Sunday added.<\/p>\n
A long investigation into a disappearance<\/p>\n
Authorities have spent more than two decades trying to determine what happened to Kahler and find clues to her whereabouts.<\/p>\n
They have interviewed and re-interviewed a number of people with possible connections to her, and they have searched areas of western Erie County and other places in hopes of finding her body.<\/p>\n
Tip lines were set up and reward money was offered as Kahler’s family, including her mother, Susan Burg, held out hope for some sort of closure.<\/p>\n
A fateful day of swimming<\/p>\n
Burg told the Erie Times-News in the past that Kahler was asleep when Burg left for work on the morning of June 24, 2002. Burg said she called home at about 11 a.m. and asked Kahler to do some laundry.<\/p>\n
Burg said Kahler told her she would do the laundry and told her mother that she loved her.<\/p>\n
Kahler’s boyfriend at the time told the Times-News that when he returned home from an appointment early that afternoon, he found a note from Kahler stating she went with Heck, whom Sunday said was a cousin of the boyfriend, to go swimming and wouldn’t be home until 4 p.m. The boyfriend said he and Kahler had gone out in the past with Heck and Heck’s girlfriend.<\/p>\n
Confrontation at park<\/p>\n
Heck, in interviews with the Erie Times-News and investigators, said he and Kahler went swimming at Eagley Park, along the Lake Erie shoreline near Eagley and Ellis roads in Springfield Township, just east of the Ohio line.<\/p>\n
Heck said they swam for about a half hour before his ex-girlfriend and others confronted him there. The two then left and went to a nearby ice cream stand on Old Lake Road to call the police, according to Heck.<\/p>\n
An investigator who initially worked Kahler’s missing persons case confirmed a state police trooper met them at the ice cream stand, and reported seeing Kahler there.<\/p>\n
Heck said they drove back to Erie and he dropped Kahler off at the West Erie Plaza, where he gave her money for the movie and to pay for a ride home. Police never confirmed Kahler made it to the West Erie Plaza.<\/p>\n
Heck denied any involvement in Kahler’s disappearance.<\/p>\n
Key evidence and grand jury testimony<\/p>\n
Sunday said at the news conference that the case was never truly a whodunit, as Heck was on police’s radar from the start.<\/p>\n
“But theories without evidence are only theories,” he said. “Now, 24 years later, we have the evidence to prove David Heck’s guilt.”<\/p>\n
Among the evidence Sunday highlighted at the news conference included:<\/p>\n
A witness who reportedly saw Kahler in Heck’s truck not far from the Fairview gravel pits, an area described as being between Nursery Road and Route 20 in Fairview Township, where authorities allege Kahler was killed.A cellmate of Heck’s in 2010 who said Heck disclosed the killing to him after Heck returned to his cell from being questioned about Kahler’s disappearance. The cellmate came forward 12 years later after learning the story he heard in prison was true and involved a missing person, Sunday said.An angler who reported hearing what he described as a blood-curdling scream while fishing at the gravel pits. The angler said shortly after hearing that, a man approached him and asked how the fishing was, Sunday said. After seeing news reports about Sabrina’s disappearance, the angler put two and two together and realized Heck was the person who approached him, Sunday said.<\/p>\n
Sunday additionally revealed that two men with close connections to Heck, one a friend and another a former brother-in-law, both provided key information when brought before the grand jury. Both were with Heck in the hours after Kahler was killed, and both reported that Heck told them without details that he had killed a girl. The friend also said he was recruited to help Heck move and bury Kahler’s body in the Elk Creek Access area, Sunday said, describing that area as a vast area of woods prone to flooding.<\/p>\n
Investigators credited<\/p>\n
Hirz said she is prosecuting the case with Senior Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Schorn, who leads the Office of Attorney General’s Cold Case Section that was involved in the investigation that led to Heck being charged.<\/p>\n
Also involved in the investigation over the years, officials highlighted at the news conference, included Erie police detectives Barry Snyder and Sean Bogart and former Erie police Capt. James Skindell; Pennsylvania State Police investigators including Eric Rogers and Todd Giliberto; and cold-case investigators Erie police Lt. Craig Stoker and state police Cpl. Mark Olowin.<\/p>\n
“A cold case is never truly cold to the family who is waiting for answers. Behind every piece of evidence, every interview, every report is a victim whose life mattered and a family deserves justice,” Hirz said.<\/p>\n
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@usatodayco.com<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Charges filed in Erie cold case in 2002 disappearance of Sabrina Kahler<\/p>\n
Reporting by Tim Hahn, Erie Times-News \/ Erie Times-News<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Copyright Reuters or USA Today via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
This story was originally published September 22, 2026 at 9:33 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announces the filing of charges in the 2002 disappearance of Erie resident Sabrina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-291767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}