By Christopher Harper
Unfortunately, almost every city and town have an unsolved murder mystery.
Here in Muncy, the case happened in 1997 with the murder of 10-year-old Joline Faye Witt. I learned about the case when Pennsylvania Crimewatch recently posted a $5,000 reward for information about the murder.
The case is receiving some attention again, as Pennsylvania Crimewatch recently posted a $5,000 reward is being offered for information on the homicide case.
Witt stayed at her mother’s home in Muncy the night she disappeared on July 27, 1997. According to Pennsylvania Crimewatch, she was last seen by her mother at approximately 2 a.m. sleeping in a bedroom at the home at 1 Grant Street. Witt had been sleeping in bed with her cousin, who discovered early that morning that Witt was gone. There were no signs of struggle or forced entry into the home.
The community came together to search for Witt. Volunteers, Witt’s family, and police searched wooded county areas for over a month. On Sept. 6, 1997, two hikers discovered Witt’s badly decomposed body on Bald Eagle Mountain about 40 miles west of Muncy. A forensic pathologist determined that the young girl had been murdered, according to Crimewatch.
Although several suspects were interviewed, some believed the girl’s uncle, Bruce Longenecker, was her killer. Witt, whose parents were divorced, stayed with her mother, Linda, on weekends in the home she shared with her brother Bruce and sister-in-law, Christina. Longenecker committed suicide three months after his niece disappeared.
Fifteen years after Witt’s disappearance, Kenneth Mains was hired as a Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office detective. Eric Lindhard, the district attorney at the time, asked him to review Witt’s case. “I talked to witnesses, family members, and I presented him my findings,” Mains said recently. “[It]is my opinion the killer is still out there.”
“[M]y analysis of the case pointed me to a different suspect still alive and living in Lycoming County today,” Mains said.
“I have worked side by side with Jolene’s sister since 2012 to help solve this case, and that is where my loyalty is and always will be…with families of victims,” Mains said.
Mains, who has had a true crime show on the History Channel and a YouTube series called “Unsolved No More,” said he is still in communication with the Witt family. “I hope the new reward will lead to this case being solved once and for all. Especially for the investigators who worked the case, the community that has endured, and the family who still suffers from this tragedy,” Mains said.
Anyone with information about the case may contact the Pennsylvania State Police in Montoursville at 570 368-5700 or the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or online. All callers to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward.