Almost 20 years after the body of a 17-year-old girl was discovered behind a Connecticut shopping plaza, police have identified the slain teen and charged her father with murdering her and her mother.
Robert Honsch had moved to Dalton, Ohio, and was living under the name Tyree Honsch with his current wife and children, authorities said.
His daughter, Elizabeth Honsch, was found shot in the head near 593 Hartford Road in New Britain on Sept. 28, 1995. Her body had been wrapped in a sleeping bag and plastic trash bags, according to police.
The body of her mother, 53-year-old Marcia Honsch, was found eight days later, 40 miles away near the entrance to a state park in Tolland, Massachusetts. She had also been shot in the head and had been dead for a week when her body was discovered, according to police.
Both women were found without any identifying information and, until Wednesday, were known publicly only as Jane Doe. DNA testing revealed that they were related, and their names were released at a news conference on Wednesday.
Police said they have obtained arrest warrants charging 70-year-old Robert Honsch with murder in both Connecticut and Massachusetts.
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He's in the custody of the Wayne County Sheriff's Department in Wooster, Ohio, and will be extradited to New England, authorities said.
The Honsch family was living in Brewster, New York, at the time of the murders. According to police, the Honsches "suddenly lost contact with all other family members" in October 1995, shortly after the bodies were found.
Police released pictures of the clothing and jewelry Elizabeth Honsch was wearing at the time of her death, along with facial reconstruction images.
Police began investigating the disappearance of the mother and daughter when relatives reported them missing in June.
The arrest warrants for Robert Honsch have been sealed and it's not clear why family members waited so long to report the women's disappearances.
Information on an attorney for Robert Honsch was not immediately available.
Photographs of Marcia, Elizabeth and Robert Honsch were released on Wednesday.
Elizabeth Honsch isn’t the only woman to be found dead on Hartford Road in New Britain.
In 2007, the bodies of three other women were discovered in the same area near the intersection of Route 9 and Hartford Road.
Two of the woman have been identified as Joyvaline “Joy” Martinez, of East Hartford, and Diane Cuzack of New Britain. Their deaths are also considered homicides but police have not said whether they're connected.
