Detectives are treating the choking death of a young woman in Juniata Park as possibly connected to two recent murders in the Kensington area.
Allison Edwards — a 22-year-old recovering drug addict who spent time in a recovery house but recently stopped attending meetings, according to reports — was found dead Friday in an apartment at Erie Avenue and Glendale Street.
A neighbor said yesterday that the murder occurred near the corner and the crime scene was above Lil’ Shining Stars day care. No one could be reached at the business, on the first floor of a row of houses that straddles the corner.
A police spokeswoman said homicide detectives have not yet officially linked Edwards’ murder to those of two victims strangled last month, but they are looking at this murder in that context. A special task force has been established to solve the murders.
“It’s being investigated as if it is,” Officer Tanya Little said of Edward’s killing. “Either way, they will [all] be investigated until the killer is caught.”
Crime-watchers wonder whether a burgeoning serial killer may be on the loose. On Nov. 3, the body of 21-year-old nursing student Elaine Goldberg was found in a lot on the 2800 block of Ruth St. Ten days later, the body of Nicole Piacentini was found strangled a half-mile away, behind a building on the 1900 block of East Cumberland St. DNA matched the two cases and descriptions have come from two others who claim they also were attacked.
