| 词条 | Draft:Murder of Holly Branagan |
| 释义 |
Holly Moira Branagan ({{Birth date|1961|12|08}} – {{death date|1979|03|28|1961}}) was a 17-year-old American student from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who was stabbed to death on March 28, 1979, in her home.{{Infobox person | name = Holly Branagan | image = | image_caption = | birth_name = Holly Moira Branagan | birth_date = {{birth date|1961|12|08}} | birth_place = Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1979|03|28|1961|12|08}} | death_place = Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_cause = {{Plainlist|
}} | body_discovered = | restingplace = | residence = | education = | alma mater = | occupation = | employer = | known for = Murder victim | home_town = | height = | partner = | parents = }} BackgroundHolly Branagan had been attending Freedom High School, located in Bethlehem, PA, in March 1979, where she had been manager of the boy's soccer team and participated in the school choir.[2] Holly was scheduled to attend Pennsylvania State University.[3] During high school, Holly worked part time as a waitress at a nearby Holiday Inn patio restaurant. Prior to her murder, she lived with her father, Richard Branagan, and brother Sean Branagan. Richard had served as a navigator in the United States Army Air Corps and was working at a local cement company, Lone Star Industries, at the time of the murder.[4] Sean was attending Lehigh University, which is located near Freedom High School. The three lived at 469 Pine Top Trail in Bethlehem, PA.[2] Peg Branagan, Holly's mother, had previously passed away from leukemia in 1976.[5] On Wednesday, March 28th, 1979, Holly attended an average day at school. During the day, she and her friends made plans to go out to dinner for pizza that night.[6] After school, Holly was home alone. Her father Richard was driving to attending a business conference in Atlantic City for the weekend, and her brother Sean was at a friends fixing a car.[7] Holly had been talking to a friend on the upstairs house phone for about an hour. Around 4:30 PM, Holly heard the doorbell ring at her door while still on the phone. She left the phone off the hook while going downstairs to open the door. After a few minutes, Holly told the friend she'd call her back, and hung up. At around 4:45 PM, Holly then placed a call to Lone Star, where her father worked. She then asked the receptionist if her father was there, but was told that he had already left for his business trip. The receptionist then hung up.[5] At around 6 PM of the same day, a girlfriend of Holly's arrived at her house to pick her up for their planned pizza dinner. After receiving no answer at the front door for several minutes, the friend eventually made her way to the back of the house to try the back door, but ultimately left before knocking. Throughout the remainder of the day, several calls were placed to the Branagan house, all of which were unanswered. Some incoming calls were rerouted to surrounding houses on the same block, though this is believed to be a phone error where lines were accident crossed.[8] Sean had decided to stay the night at a friend's house and also unsuccessfully tried to call Holly at home. DiscoveryThe following morning, March 29th, 1979, Sean made more unsuccessful phone calls to the residence. He and a friend decided to go to the house to check on Holly when they found her murdered. She was laying on the floor in a pool of blood with a snapped half of a 10-inch blade still protruding from her back.[2] Police were called to the scene. Holly had been stabbed 18 times, 15 of the stabs being fatal stabs to the back, with 3 shallow defensive wounds. There appeared to be signs of a struggled, including but not limited to tossed furniture and a broken clock. Investigators believe the attacker likely did not intend to kill Holly, but did so during an argument. Holly was not sexually assaulted, there was no evidence of forced entry into the home and nothing was missing. The scene appeared to be tampered with, and evidence was recovered from the scene. Death of Sean BranaganFollowing Holly's murder, Sean had attempted to scare the murderer out of hiding.[2] Ignoring the advice of his father, Sean had been telling people around the community that he knew who committed the murder in hopes of flushing out the killer, although this was seen as a farce. Several months later, on September 9th, 1979, Sean was working a shift a Mobil gas station at 2130 Schoenersville Road.[9] He and another youth employee were cleaning the property using gasoline at around 9:30 AM when a spark from a cleaning machine ignited the gasoline fumes. This caused a violent explosion and fire. While the other employee made it out of the fire unharmed, Sean was critically injured. He was brought to the then Sacred Heart Hospital Center Burn Unit where he was unable to talk, ultimately dying nine days later. Because of the events leading up to the incident, it has been speculated by the local Bethlehem Police Department that gas explosion may have been caused on purpose. However, it has never been conclusively ruled as accident or murder.[2] InvestigationOver the course of 40 years, a number of Grand Jury hearings were held. A Northampton County grand jury reviewed the case in 1999, after which, District Attorney John Morganelli said, "We are no closer today than we were then." A new grand jury reviewed the case in 2010, hearing testimony from about 30 to 35 people. Bethlehem police Detective Thomas Galloway, who has been working on the case since 2009, said, "I have developed a suspect, but we're not ready to move forward." As of 2015, in an interview with lead Detective Tom Galloway, it was stated that most people had been ruled out with only two to three people still being looked at. While it was once thought that drugs may have been involved, this was ruled out. Police believe Holly was murdered by someone she knew.[6] |
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