GUILTY PA - Susan, 44, & Sarah Wolfe, 38, murdered in their Pittsburgh home, 6 Feb 2014

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DNA evidence key in trial of East Liberty sister's murders
For several weeks in early 2014, a double murder in East Liberty had the community on edge as neighbors, friends and co-workers wondered and worried about who would kill Susan and Sarah Wolfe in their home.

A web of surveillance cameras around the nearby East Liberty business district and DNA analysis by the Allegheny County crime lab and an Oakland-based contractor eventually pointed police to the sisters' neighbor, Allen Wade, who was charged with homicide and is slated to begin his trial Monday before Court of Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski.

“There certainly will be a lot of circumstantial evidence introduced, and you can convict someone on circumstantial evidence, but I believe the evidence that will be most persuasive or foremost in the jurors' minds will be that DNA,” said John Burkoff, a criminal law professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

He noted that Borkowski is a good judge to hear the case, given his history as a prosecutor and his meticulous nature.

(...)

Testimony is expected to begin Monday morning and last about three weeks. There were almost 170 potential witnesses on the list given to potential jurors during the three-week selection process, though not all the witnesses are likely to be called.

If the jurors convict Wade of first-degree murder, they will have to hear additional testimony about why Wade should or should not receive the death penalty, then return a separate verdict on whether the penalty should be death or life in prison without parole.
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http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/10377630-74/wade-dna-crime
 
Authorities have cited DNA evidence and surveillance videos they say link Wade, a next-door neighbor, to a pair of sweatpants found near Sarah Wolfe’s vehicle and to bank cards belonging to the victims.

Defense attorneys unsuccessfully challenged the DNA evidence and a software program that interprets such evidence using a statistical model, but the judge barred prosecutors from using two previous convictions that they maintained showed a pattern on the part of the defendant.

At the request of defense attorneys, Judge Edward Borkowski has issued a gag order barring lawyers or investigators from talking about the case outside of court.
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http://www.vindy.com/news/2016/may/02/pittsburgh-trial-to-begin-in-slaying-of-/
 
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/c...slaying-of-Wolfe-sisters/stories/201605020144

Police believe that Susan was killed first, and that Sarah was killed when she returned home later.

Mr. Petulla described in brutal detail the savage beating endured by Susan Wolfe, telling the jury that the steps and walls of the home’s unfinished, “dungeon-like” basement were smeared in blood, like a “sinister and sadistic and vulgar tapestry.”

But, he continued, “As vulnerable as Susan Jeanette Wolfe was, she didn’t go down without a fight. Whether through a clutch, a scratch, a grab, she reached out to her attacker that night, and she got DNA from him under her nails.”

It was the DNA of Wade, their next-door neighbor, which had not been masked by bleach and detergent poured on the scene.
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http://www.wtae.com/news/allen-wade-trial-begins-sarah-and-susan-wolfe-murders-east-liberty/39319174

Prosecutors told jurors Monday morning that Wade's DNA was found on a pair of sweatpants, a pair of socks and a hat that he tossed on Whitfield Street in East Liberty hours after the women were killed. Prosecutors said Sarah Wolfe's DNA was also found on the same pair of socks. They said he killed Susan Wolfe first, then Sarah Wolfe, then used Sarah Wolfe's debit card to withdraw $600 from an ATM.

video.....
 
http://www.wpxi.com/news/mother-of-...speaks-out-its-a-loss-for-everybody/255595074

Horrible things happen to people all over the world, and we're not immune. This is our horrible thing, and we just have to deal with it,” Pierrette Wolfe said.

She said she remembers Susan Wolfe as a loving teacher who spent her life helping children, and Sarah Wolfe as a devoted doctor at UPMC who was dedicated to her work.

“They loved Pittsburgh. They had friends there. It's a loss for everybody,” Pierrette Wolfe said.
 
http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/10425323-74/wolfe-iowa-wade

Friday's testimony, on the trial's fifth day, covered physical evidence, cellphone records, the Wolfes' home alarm system and Susan Wolfe's work habits...

District Attorney's Detective Lyle Graber testified that cellphone tower records show that someone used Susan Wolfe's cellphone at 9:23 p.m. Feb. 6 to call PNC's automated account information number.

Two calls between 1:16 and 1:17 a.m. Feb. 7 on her phone registered on different cell towers, indicating that whoever had it was somewhere between the two. One covers the Wolfes' house. The other is on the other side of the Sunoco station.

Jean-Paul Martin, chief technology officer and co-founder of Alarm.com, testified that the door sensor on the Wolfes' house shows the front door opened and closed five times between 7:26 p.m. and 9:54 p.m. Feb. 6, 2014. It opened and closed twice more at 3:03 a.m. and 3:16 a.m., he said.
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The Sunoco station is where a man believed to be Wade bought Newport cigarettes, the same brand he chain-smoked while being questioned by police.
 
Highlights of week one include surveillance video of a man who prosecutors say is Allen Wade withdrawing $600 from Sarah's Wolfe's bank account from an ATM, and also using Susan Wolfe's debit card to buy cigarettes hours after the two were shot to death.

Pittsburgh homicide detective Wade Sarver testified he spent over 40 hours reviewing and compiling surveillance videos from businesses near the East Liberty branch of the Carnegie Library, where police found Sarah Wolfe's green Ford Fiesta on February 8, 2014, the day after their bodies were discovered by Sarah's boyfriend
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http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/...allen-wade-death-penalty-trial/article/464893
 
Scientists at the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office knew police were looking at Allen Wade as a suspect in Susan and Sarah Wolfe's murders, which his defense argues may have influenced their work.

Under cross-examination in the eighth day of Wade's murder trial, forensic biologist Walter Lorenz said Wednesday he'd heard Wade was a suspect before he did the first tests for DNA on evidence from the case.

(...)

Defense attorney Aaron Sontz wanted to know Wednesday whether the crime lab, knowing that Wade was a suspect, may have tweaked its tests or focused on the results that pointed toward him having a DNA link to the case
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http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/10452093-74/wade-dna-lorenz
 
It's now up to 12 jurors to decide if Allen Wade will get the death penalty or serve life in prison without parole for the 2014 murders of Susan and Sarah Wolfe.

Jurors started deliberating in the penalty phase of Wade's trial at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, and must decide whether the “aggravating circumstances” of the murders — that there was more than one, that they were committed in the midst of robbing the sisters of their bank cards and that he had a criminal background that included two other robberies at gunpoint — outweigh mitigating factors like his family life, health or other circumstances of the crime.
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http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/10523830-74/wade-factors-death
 
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