The Murder of Christine Guenther: Unsolved but Not Forgotten

A woman sits in a crowded chapel, in the company of family, friends and strangers. She glances at the floor and notices an autumn leaf. As the congregation progresses past her to receive the sacrament, their shuffling feet stir the leaf, causing it to spin and dance.

At the conclusion of communion, the leaf rests so that its tip points at the woman, and she is reminded of another autumn leaf she saw three decades ago—a leaf pursed between the lips of her teenage daughter, whose body was discovered buried under foliage after her murder.

That woman is Carmen Mader, formerly Guenther. Her daughter’s name was Christine, and this year marks the 30th anniversary of Christine’s unsolved murder.

Fifteen-year-old Christine disappeared Oct. 26, 1981, from the bus stop at Donaldson’s Crossroads after an early dismissal from school at . She was headed to a doctor’s appointment in Pittsburgh, but she never made it there.

A hunter scouting the area around Cecil Sturgeon Road in South Fayette discovered her body five days later. She had been bludgeoned in the head.

What happened to Christine during the days she was missing? Who killed her and why?

Despite diligent investigative efforts on the parts of police departments in Washington and Allegheny counties, these questions have gone unanswered. Christine’s murder remains unsolved, but it is definitely not forgotten, and many questions are still being relentlessly asked.

The chapel where Mader sat and watched the leaf dance was in  in Peters Township, where more than a hundred people joined her Saturday morning for a Mass in Christine’s honor.

The Mass was part of a  dedicated to promote awareness of the murder and bringing Christine’s case to justice.

Other memorial events included a caravan Sunday morning from  to Christine’s burial site at and a gathering Monday afternoon underneath the billboard at the intersection of Washington Road/Route 19 and Valleybrook Road.

A large group of people attended each of the events. Fond memories were shared. Tears were shed, but most of all, hope was spread—hope for a break in Christine’s case, for answers to the questions that have haunted too many people for too long.

It was this sense of hope that made the memorial events possible.

Chris (Patrizio) Wallace, Christine’s best friend, has never given up hope that Christine’s murder will be solved. She has dedicated a lot of her time to following up on Christine’s case and has put to use a valuable tool that was not available at the time of Christine’s murder: the Internet.

Through the Internet, Wallace, a resident of Tampa, Fla., was able to find a Facebook page about Christine’s murder. The page she found, however, was highly speculative and has since been deleted at her request.

While that particular page didn’t give Wallace any answers, it gave her an idea.

Wallace started the Justice for Christine Guenther page on Facebook about a year ago. It has been visible to others whose curiosity spurred them to surf the net in search of information about Christine and her murder.

Diane (Hartman) Postrech was one of the curious people who clicked her way to Wallace’s page. Postrech is a Peters Township High School alum who was in college at the time of Christine’s murder. Though she did not know Christine, she nonetheless could not escape the gravity of the murder.

Another person wrangled in on the web was Nicole Mayor, Christine’s cousin, who flew in from Dallas to take part in the memorial.

Mayor was 8 at the time of the tragedy. She said she was unable to comprehend what had happened at the time and that her parents and other family members sheltered her from the truth. Her search for information about her dearly missed cousin was what caused her to find the Justice for Christine Guenther page.

Wallace, Postrech and Mayor were largely responsible for the coordination and execution of the memorial events last weekend. They also attribute credit to others who have contributed to their newly-launched website, www.chrisguenthermurder.com, or have provided informational, financial or motivational support.

The purposes of the events were twofold. Remembering Christine was one of the goals, but it was not the most pressing one. The main goal of the events was to promote awareness of Christine’s murder, to remind people that it happened and call for any information that could lead to solving the case.

With respect to this goal, Wallace and Postrech stressed that they are not interested in solving the case themselves but rather are interested in gathering information that the proper authorities can use to solve it.

On behalf of their group, Friends of Christine Guenther, Wallace and Postrech have issued a public request: Anyone who has any information about the events surrounding Christine’s disappearance and murder is asked to contact the Allegheny County Police Department 24-hour tip line at 412-475-3000 or the Allegheny County Homicide Unit at 412-473-1300.

Wallace explained that it is crucial for those who submitted tips 30 years ago to resubmit them at this time because the case was initially looked at as a missing persons case and has since become an unsolved murder case.

Postrech said that people should report information regardless of how insignificant the details might seem, an opinion that Peters Township Chief of Harry Fruecht shares.

“If you take a look at how many people reside in the community and how many people pass through (the) intersection (where Christine was last seen), somebody had to have seen something that could help us,” said Fruecht.

“Sometimes people have a bit of information and they don’t even realize they have it… All they have to do is come forward and provide that information. It may be the small piece we need to complete the puzzle.”

Fruecht and Jim Morton, assistant superintendent for the Allegheny County Police, attended the billboard gathering. Like Wallace, Morton stressed the importance of resubmitting tips, noting that the classification of the case is not the only thing that has changed over the years.

For instance, Morton said Megan’s Law was not in place at the time of Christine’s murder. Though there were no indications of sexual assault on Christine’s body, the registrar of sex offenders would have been a possible starting place for the case had such a thing been around when Christine was murdered, he said.

Another key change Morton noted was technology, the very thing that brought the Friends of Christine Guenther together and the very thing they hope will crack the case.

“Technology allows us to break down the barriers that would otherwise confine us,” Wallace said. “We can reach people across the country and across the globe and remember things we think we’ve forgotten.

“We’re optimistic that technology will reach someone or stir a memory… and help us uncover the truth.”

Perhaps technology has already begun to work this magic. Morton said that the Allegheny County Police Department received information over the weekend from a caller who found out about the case online, which is exactly the type of result the Friends of Christine Guenther set out to achieve.