Sorry, had to make it into two postings due to length.
FBI involved again
The Mirack case received federal attention while Schuler participated in an intensive 11-week training course at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., in 1995. Upon her return, the killer's profile had not changed: one man, possibly 25 to 35 years old, who knew that about 7 a.m. Monday, Dec. 21, Christy would be alone getting ready for school in her townhouse.
The motive is still unclear. Geesey would not comment on the crime scene last week. Police remain quiet as to what weapons were used in the crime, and will not comment on information from sources early on that one instrument was a kitchen cutting board.
"She was beaten," Geesey said. "She was beaten in anger, but ... I don't think we should get into specifics."
The tips that inundated police in the weeks after the homicide slowed with the passage of time. These days, it can be a few months before there's a lead on the case. The most recent tip came in Dec. 2; investigators refused comment on the nature of that information.
Schuler said East Lampeter Township detective Joseph Edgell was assigned to assist on the case about 10 months ago. Geesey continues to work with the department, which is aided by local municipalities as well as state and federal law enforcement when the need arises.
The FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit working out of Quantico is assisting on the case and working on a profile of the killer.
It's not the first time for FBI assistance. In addition to Schuler's training, East Lampeter Township investigators sought federal input in 1993.
Later that year, in a Sunday News story, the murderer was described as someone who wouldn't stand out in a crowd. He was an observer, not the center of attention or the life of the party. He probably hadn't killed before but might have committed date rape, according to information based in part on an FBI profile.
He may have gone into a rage when Christy either rejected him or wouldn't stop resisting.
Who and why
For most of the past decade, it was Mrs. Mirack _ a native of Sunbury who moved to Shamokin as a child _ who kept in touch with police for updates on the investigation.
"She always felt like she was on the outside looking in," her son said.
Schuler wasn't sure when last she spoke with the Miracks; Christy's brother, who also lives in suburban Philadelphia, said his mother hadn't talked with Lancaster County officials in at least a year.
That was about the time Mrs. Mirack faced a third bout with cancer, breast cancer that eventually metastasized to her brain. Treatments to fight the disease wore her out, yet she clung to a dimming hope that Christy's killer would be caught.
Mrs. Mirack worked in several Shamokin-area garment factories and was last employed in Northumberland County's maintenance department. She was proud of college-educated Christy, whom the family called "Chrissy." Mother and daughter's relationship was a close one. Family said they were like sisters.
Faced with her own mortality, Mrs. Mirack _ a wife for 38 years, a mother for almost as many, and a grandmother _ straddled a fence between her love for them and the daughter and sister they'd mourned as a family for a decade. Not knowing the killer's identity had been torment upon heartbreak.
"Who? Who and why?" Mrs. Mirack asked through tears, noting that it had been years before she could really even talk about the murder. "Was she that terrible a person that they had to kill her?"
Christy, who had also been a part-time waitress at Conestoga Country Club and an assistant to a pharmacist at the Neffsville Pharmacy, knew hard work.
And she was determined to be a good teacher.
At 25, she was on her way. Her youth, enthusiasm and rapport with the children made her popular with students, parents and colleagues.
The night before the murder she finished wrapping the last of her Christmas presents for her class. Each child was to get a paperback book, "Miracles on Maple Hill," by children's author Virginia Sorensen. A candy cane topped each gift, and inside, she wrote: "Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a great 1993! Love, Miss Mirack."
Her mother bristled at critics who tarred her daughter with a brush long on judgment and short on compassion because she liked to have fun with her girlfriends at local night spots.
"She was a young kid in college," Mrs. Mirack said of Christy's years at Millersville University. "What do you expect?"
The family learned of Christy's four-year relationship with an older married man after the murder. It was but one thread in a rich, 25-year-old life filled with potential and built around teaching, friendship and family.
As Mrs. Mirack put it, "She was just an ordinary girl."
Family's doubts
Blame for the murder is the killer's alone. But finding the murderer has been no small task.
At an emotional September interview with the Miracks, the pain of Christy's death was fresh. Her family second-guessed themselves, worrying aloud that they should have pushed law enforcement harder. They wondered whether the case would have been solved long ago if they lived in Lancaster County.
"We did whatever they asked us to do," said Christy's brother, a sentiment that was affirmed by Geesey and Schuler. "We assumed they told us everything we needed to know."
"We didn't talk," Christy's father, 64, said. "We didn't say nothing to nobody."
The last thing they wanted to do was jeopardize the case.
Now, her father sees things differently. "Nice people finish last."
Alicia, 37, wonders whether the case was too much for local law enforcement. "I didn't get a feeling they were used to dealing with these things," she said.
Then the family learned of allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the investigation and prosecution of Lisa Michelle Lambert, one of Laurie Show's convicted killers. Although a Lancaster County judge found no evidence to support those charges in a post-conviction hearing reaffirming Lambert's guilty verdict, it raised questions in the minds of the Mirack family.
"They had so many changes of hands down there," Christy's brother added. "Every time you talked to them, somebody different was handling the case."
Schuler, who has been involved in the investigation from the beginning, said she understands the frustrations and doubts of the Mirack family. But she assures them, and the public, that investigators have been diligent in gathering evidence and working to solve this crime.
"This case has been on every police officer's mind in this county ..." said Geesey, suggesting that it is one that police _ Schuler, in particular, because of her contact with Mrs. Mirack _ have taken personally.
Although investigators have changed _ people get older, move to new positions and retire, noted Schuler _ "that does not affect the continuity," Geesey said.
The Mirack case is one of the unsolved crimes the county is continuing to look into. Others include the 1975 stabbing of Lindy Biechler and the 1984 disappearance of Mary Ann Bagenstose.
Resolve lives on
Schuler said the Mirack case will remain open until it is solved. Investigators believe it can be solved.
But, Schuler added, "We need (the public's) help. We are not an island. We need phone calls and letters to continue."
Investigators stressed that no piece of information is too small or insignificant. Someone may want to come forward who didn't before; there may be others who want to change, or add to, information they supplied to police.
Mrs. Mirack's resolve to find Christy's killer lives on in her husband and surviving son and daughter.
"You don't think something like this will happen to you," she said during the interview in September, "and when it does, it's overwhelming."
Less than two months later, mother was buried alongside daughter at All Saints Cemetery in rural Elysburg.
