On April 9, 1993, three men found the lifeless body of Louise M. Weyandt underneath the Penn Street Bridge in downtown Reading. She had been raped and knocked unconscious before her body was entombed by heavy rocks. The only part of Weyandt that was visible was her hand sticking out from under the giant boulders that had been rolled down a hill on to her body.

The cause of death: asphyxiation by compression, a result of the rocks on her chest and neck.

Police called in construction equipment to remove the rocks and did a thorough investigation, but Weyandt’s killer remained at large. Her case would not, however, be forgotten by police.

On May 4, 2003, the body of Denise R. Moore was found on a fire escape on South Third Street in Reading. She had been raped and her throat had been slit. Her assailant cut open her chest and stabbed her heart directly.

These two women had never met. Each never knew the other existed, but their deaths would lead Reading Police Sergeant Joseph Cafoncelli ’02, Sergeant John Solecki and criminal investigator Timothy Williams down a common road to bring both of their killers to justice.

Cafoncelli, a 2002 graduate of Albright College’s Accelerated Degree Completion Program in organizational behavior/applied psychology, has been a Reading police officer since 1989. He has served in both the patrol and investigative divisions of the force. While investigating the Moore case and suspect Richard Roddenberry, Cafoncelli found striking resemblances between the Moore and Weyandt cases. “The victimology was very similar,” he says. “They both were raped and tortured, both found nude, both killed in a gruesome fashion.”

While questioning Roddenberry, Cafoncelli noticed scratches on his face and arms. When asked where he received the wounds, Roddenberry responded, “Down along the banks of the river, under the Penn Street Bridge.” Cafoncelli’s interest in the Weyandt case grew even stronger. He and Williams opened the cold case file and retrieved the rape kit completed at Weyandt’s autopsy 10 years earlier.

Cafoncelli ordered a DNA test performed on Roddenberry in the Weyandt case, but received bad news. The DNA sample collected from Weyandt did not match that of Roddenberry, who was later convicted of killing Moore and sentenced to life in prison.

On May 17, 2005, Cafoncelli received a call from forensic scientist Sabine I. Panzner-Kaelin of the Pennsylvania State Police. The sample Cafoncelli had submitted from the Weyandt rape kit had been positively identified by CODIS computers.

CODIS, the FBI’s Combined DNA Indexing System, began in 1990. It served as a pilot project with 14 states participating until legislation in 1994 authorized the FBI to begin indexing DNA samples on a national level.

According to Cafoncelli, “CODIS has changed law enforcement tremendously. It is the scientific proof needed to solve cases. It is undeniable evidence.”

CODIS is made up of a three-tier system—local, state and national. Local law enforcement laboratories enter samples and profiles, which then flow to the state police, who in turn do the same. All of the state information flows to a national database of both forensic and offender profiles.

The forensic profile is DNA evidence collected from crime scenes for which law enforcement officers are attempting to find matches. “DNA is better than fingerprints in many cases,” says Cafoncelli. “It positively puts the offender at the scene of the crime.” The offender index contains DNA profiles of individuals convicted of violent crimes. The national database currently holds more than 6.6 million offender profiles and 241,685 forensic profiles, and is credited with assisting more than 77,700 cases across the United States.

Pennsylvania State Police entered the information of Steven R. Simpson into the CODIS system, and his DNA matched that of the Weyandt rape samples. Simpson, who was already serving a sentence for assault in the State Correctional Institution at Frackville, initially denied any contact with Weyandt. But, faced with the DNA evidence, he admitted his crime. He had killed Weyandt for denying him a sexual relationship.

Simpson pled guilty in his 2007 trial and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He died of cancer less than a year later.

“I’m so glad it’s over,” Weyandt’s sister Elizabeth told the Reading Eagle after Simpson’s sentencing. “My sister was so kind, she can now rest in peace.”

For Cafoncelli, being able to give the victim’s family closure after 14 long years was one of his greatest moments, one in which he credits his Albright degree. His education, he says, helps him interpret the suspect’s or witnesses’ psychology and read their body language.  “It helps me read signs that get me to the truth.”