Hair found at a bloody murder scene 10 years ago in Bethel Park led to the arrest Thursday of a man accused of killing his former wife.
John Minch, 41, was arrested at his home in Cameron, W.Va., in the slaying of
Melissa Groot, 29, inside the Park Avenue home she shared with her new family, Allegheny County Police Lt. William Palmer said.
Groot's body was found by her husband, David Groot, when he returned home from work on May 6, 1999. The couple's 1-year-old son, Gavin, was found unharmed in his crib in a nearby bedroom.
At the time of the slaying, county police said they believed Groot was stabbed near the bathroom sink and her body, still clad in her nightgown, placed in the bathtub. They said she had been stabbed twice in the back and her throat slashed. An 8-inch butcher knife was found in the house.
"The suspect's hair was found at the scene," Palmer said yesterday. "Mitochondrial DNA was conducted on the hair fragments."
Neighbors said at the time that Melissa Groot told them she was afraid of Minch and that he had beat her and hit Katy.
County police Sgt. Andrew Schurman said Minch and Groot had been involved in a custody dispute for their then 4-year-old daughter, Katy.
Schurman credited the "dogged determination" of county homicide detective Terry Hediger and Keith Andrews, an investigator with the office of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.
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