HOLLIDAYSBURG A witness testifying in defense of Paul Aaron Ross called attention Friday to four different types of footprints state police identified at Ca
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG A retired state police investigator told a Blair County jury Thursday that officers took about three months to pursue information before filing charges against Paul Aaron Ross of Hollidaysburg in the 2004 death of Tina S. Miller.
“There was no rush to judgment here,” said Dave Aiello, who testified about the efforts he and fellow investigators made to identify who killed Miller, a 26-year-old Hollidaysburg woman whose body was found June 27, 2004, partly submerged in a tributary to the lake at Canoe Creek State Park.
Aiello said 92 days passed between Miller’s death and the filing of first-degree murder and related sexual assault charges against Ross. During that time, officers interviewed 220 people, collected 233 pieces of evidence, arranged for analysis of 61 pieces of evidence and handled 18 searches, including 10 searches for which they obtained warrants, he said.
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG DNA in the mouth of a 26-year-old Hollidaysburg woman found dead in 2004 at Canoe Creek State Park more likely belongs to Paul Aaron Ross than any other male, a forensic pathologist told a Blair County jury on Wednesday.
Jeffrey Zachetti, forensic DNA manager for the state police crime laboratory at Greensburg, said he pinpointed that greater likelihood in 2014 while using updated DNA testing procedures to re-examine materials collected during Tina S. Miller’s autopsy.
Miller and Ross were last seen together at the state park in the early morning hours of June 27, 2004, where a friend dropped them off near Ross’ residence.
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG Vehicle tracks observed in a grassy area of Canoe Creek State Park, close to where Tina S. Miller’s body was found in 2004, were likely created by a riding mower, witnesses told a jury Tuesday in Blair County Court.
In challenging a defensive theory offered on behalf of Paul Aaron Ross of Hollidaysburg, who is on trial for first-degree murder and related sexual assault charges, prosecution witnesses rejected the idea that the tracks could have been created by a white pickup truck whose driver Ross claimed met up with Miller a few hours before she was found dead.
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG A 26-year-old Hollidaysburg woman found dead in 2004 at Canoe Creek State Park would have gone through an extreme amount of pain, fear and anxiety in the events leading up to her death, based on testimony of two forensic pathologists offered Monday in Blair County Court.
The examination of Tina S. Miller’s body and an autopsy report generated no conclusions on the sequence of events leading up to her death, the forensic pathologists reported.
But they did reveal that before she took her last breath on June 27, 2004, the young woman was struck three times on the head, dragged through brush, restrained with duct tape, sodomized to mutilation, strangled and her face was shoved into the lake bed of the park, which likely caused her to drown. Miller’s partly-clothed body was found at the edge of the lake by a couple who were fishing in a small boat.