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Serial killer James Richard Clark linked to deaths of 2 Pennsylvania women murdered nearly 50 years ago
DNA evidence from decades-old crime scenes helped police identify James Clark as the man responsible for the killings of Susan Rush and Brenda Ritter.
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A decades-old mystery in Pennsylvania has been solved after investigators linked now-deceased serial killer James Richard Clark to the murders of two young women nearly 50 years ago.
Pennsylvania State Police identified Clark as the person responsible for the deaths of Susan Rush, 21, and Brenda Ritter, 18, after advanced DNA testing connected evidence from both crime scenes. Authorities said the breakthrough confirmed that a serial killer operated in Washington County during the 1970s.
Clark, who died of natural causes in 2023 at the age of 66, was identified after investigators used new forensic technology to analyze preserved evidence from the two unsolved homicide cases.
“Testing identified that the same offender murdered both Susan Rush and Brenda Ritter. This testing confirmed there was a serial killer in Washington County during this time frame,” Cpl. James Petrosky of the Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit said at a news conference.
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The murders of Susan Rush and Brenda Ritter
Rush was last seen leaving the shopping centre where she worked in November 1976. She planned to meet her family for a Thanksgiving Eve dinner at church but never arrived.
Her brother found her body the next morning inside the trunk of her abandoned car. According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Rush's body had been hastily dressed; all she had on were green pants and an inside-out turtleneck sweater. Farrell Jackson, the Washington County Coroner at the time, told the newspaper that her bra and underpants were on a seat inside the vehicle.
Investigators determined she had been sexually assaulted and died from strangulation, police said.
Authorities struggled for years to identify her killer despite examining evidence and following multiple leads.
Six months later, Ritter was killed in a similar manner. The 18-year-old had left her boyfriend’s home during a stormy night in May 1977 and never returned.
Her abandoned car was discovered near Washington, Pennsylvania. A police helicopter later located her body on a nearby hill. Investigators said she had also been sexually assaulted and strangled.
The similarities between the two cases led investigators to examine whether the murders were connected. Officials at the time noticed similarities but could not find enough evidence to identify a suspect.
Both investigations eventually went cold and left the victims’ families without answers.
DNA breakthrough reveals hidden serial killer case
The investigation received a major boost after forensic technology advanced decades after the killings.
In 2008, investigators uploaded DNA evidence from Ritter’s case to CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database. However, authorities found no match for the unidentified male profile.
In 2025, investigators submitted DNA evidence from both cases to specialised forensic laboratories, including Cybergenetics Corp, Othram, PTC Laboratories and Identifinders International, for additional analysis.
Cybergenetics analysed the DNA profiles and found an extremely high likelihood that evidence from the two crime scenes came from the same person. The finding officially connected the Rush and Ritter murders.
The DNA evidence helped investigators develop a suspect profile that eventually led them to Clark.
Police said Clark lived in the Washington area when the murders occurred. He was 19 years old when Rush was killed and 20 when Ritter was murdered. Investigators are now examining whether Clark may have been connected to other unsolved crimes.
“I believe that once you’re a serial killer, you’re always a serial killer. I believe there could potentially be more victims,” Petrosky said.
Petrosky said investigators will continue reviewing Clark’s background and searching for possible links to additional cases.
“We don’t consider the cases hopeless, we always think there’s something there,” he said. “It’s not about us; it’s about the victims and their families.”
