{"id":291865,"date":"2026-09-22T23:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T23:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/291865\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T23:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T23:10:20","slug":"brazil-man-charged-in-2002-pennsylvania-cold-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/291865\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil man charged in 2002 Pennsylvania cold case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"616\" height=\"512\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wtwo_terre_haute_articles_622\/0d3f188a97517a5e69d8af6319101051.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">BRAZIL, Ind. (WTWO\/WAWV) &#8212; A man living in Brazil, Indiana, has been taken into custody in connection with a 2002 Pennsylvania cold case murder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:According to court documents,;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/ujsportal.pacourts.us\/Report\/MdjDocketSheet?docketNumber=MJ-06308-CR-0000325-2026&amp;dnh=Ow4jwiNpErHEebmPJs3sBA%3D%3D\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">According to court documents,<\/a> David Heck, 50, of Brazil, Indiana, was taken into custody over the weekend in connection with the death of 20-year-old Sabrina Kahler in 2002.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"616\" height=\"512\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wtwo_terre_haute_articles_622\/e29eb8154d3585e1bb4c08b87a4fba94.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the <a data-ylk=\"slk:Pennsylvania Attorney General;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.attorneygeneral.gov\/taking-action\/attorney-general-sundays-cold-case-section-erie-investigators-announce-charges-in-2002-rape-murder-of-20-year-old-sabrina-kahler\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Pennsylvania Attorney General<\/a>, Heck kidnapped and raped the 20-year-old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials said Heck was the cousin of Sabrina&#8217;s boyfriend at the time and unexpectedly showed up at her house to take Sabrina swimming with him. Police said Heck then took Kahler to a wooded area at the Fairview Gravel Pits, near Lake Erie, where he raped and killed her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Heck raped and killed Sabrina at Fairview Gravel Pits. A fisherman reported hearing a female&#8217;s &#8216;blood-curdling scream&#8217; before a man matching Heck&#8217;s photo from a TV news broadcast walked out of the woods \u2014 alone \u2014 and towards him, making brief conversation,&#8221; said the attorney general&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The attorney general said that recent testimony from previously reluctant witnesses completed the puzzle and led to a single conclusion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Years after the killing, officials said Heck also told a cellmate that he raped and killed a girl at Fairview Gravel Pits and that she screamed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Heck has been charged with murder of the first degree, murder of the second degree, murder of the third degree, kidnapping, and rape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mywabashvalley.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRAZIL, Ind. (WTWO\/WAWV) &#8212; A man living in Brazil, Indiana, has been taken into custody in connection with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20405,120928,10744,28,4601,30,29,50601],"class_list":["post-291865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-brazil","tag-david-heck","tag-indiana","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-attorney-general","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-sabrina-kahler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291865","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=291865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}