Human remains were found in Pennsylvania in a search related to the disappearance of an 18-year-old Amish woman who had been missing for ten months, the district attorney’s office said Wednesday.
Linda Stoltzfoos was last seen on June 21 when she walked home from church in the Bird-in-Hand area of Lancaster County.
Justo Smoker is accused of kidnapping and killing Stolzfoos. Last summer, he was charged with kidnapping, and in December, he was charged with culpable homicide, the law firm in Lancaster said.
Smoker (35) is being held without bail according to the prison and court records. A public defender who represented him could not be reached immediately after office hours Wednesday night.
The district attorney’s office said the remains were found in a rural area in the eastern part of the country, which is southeast of Harrisburg.
The coroner’s office will identify the remains and determine the cause and manner of death.
“The Stoltzfoos family has been notified of this update and is still processing it understandably,” the DA’s office said in a statement.
East Lampeter Township Police, lt. Matt Hess, after Stoltzfoos disappeared last year, told NBC’s “Dateline” that there is no reason to believe the teenager wants to leave or take a trip, and that would be far beyond her character.
Authorities said clothes allegedly belonging to Stolzfoos were found in the woods in a rural part of Ronks in July, and that Smoker’s vehicle was parked on the spot two days after she was last seen.
Officials said ‘DNA attributable to smoker’ was found on one of the overgrown socks.
Christopher Tallarico, chief defender of the province, argued in March that there was no evidence that Stoltzfoos had ever climbed into Smoker’s car, and he evoked evidence that her DNA was not found on samples taken from the car, reports The Associated Press.
East Lampeter Township Detective Christopher Jones said recovered DNA profiles were insufficient to test.
“The prosecutors claimed that the time that had elapsed along with the cessation of all routine activities had led to the inevitable conclusion that Linda had died and that Roker had caused her death,” the DA’s office said.
In March, a magistrate ruled, according to the DA’s office, that there was enough evidence to hold the trial for the murder charge.
The Associated Press contributed.