An Amish mother-of-two who was also six months pregnant was found dead of gunshot wounds inside of her home in rural Pennsylvania community. The shocking crime has left investigators baffled.
Rebekah Byler, 23, was found dead by a family member on Fish Flats Road in Sparta Township, around 40 miles southeast of Erie, Pennsylvania, after police were called to the scene yesterday around 12.30 pm.
State Police said they are investigating Byler’s death as a homicide, uncommon in parts of the Erie region with a large Amish population.
However, they said they are ‘aggressively investigating all available leads.’
Byler’s two other children were in the property unharmed when the body was found by police.
Rebekah Byler, 23, was found dead by a family member on Fish Flats Road in Sparta Township after police were called to the scene yesterday at around 12.30 pm
Police have no suspects for the suspected crime as of Tuesday afternoon, The Erie Times-News reported.
The autopsy is pending and police have yet to release any other details.
Neighbors told WJET/WFXP that Byler was six months pregnant and that it was her husband that made the horrifying discovery.
Byler was found with gunshot wounds, KDKA-TV reported.
The ‘heartbroken’ community said Byler’s death has affected everyone living there.
‘Buncha good people everyone seems to get along with them. Everyone is just stunned. Nobody could even imagine that this kind of stuff is going on,’ local resident Randy Eaton told WJET-TV.
‘It’s definitely shameful that anything like this could go on here. There’s not a person who’s not concerned. Everyone is surprised.’
‘We’re just a very tight-knit community and I’m absolutely heartbroken that this has happened. I’m very very concerned about the Amish community I’m worried for them,’ said the owner of Spartansburg Pharmacy, Charleen Hajec.
‘This is very shocking, very shocking, and especially to not know what happened and what’s going on, but it’s just very very shocking,’ Hajec added.
Police are asking anyone in the area of Fish Flats Road who might have seen suspicious people, cars or activity to contact them.
Police at the scene. The Pennsylvania State Police said they are investigating Byler’s death as a homicide, uncommon in parts of Erie region with a large Amish population
In July 2021, a Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the 2020 death of an 18-year-old Amish girl.
Justo Smoker was sentenced to 35 and a half to 71 years in prison, with an additional 17 and a half years that could be added for a parole violation, in the death of Linda Stoltzfoos.
He also pleaded guilty to kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and possession of an instrument of crime.
The young girl’s remains were found in rural Pennsylvania in April 2021, 10 months after her disappearance.
The Lancaster County coroner used dental records to positively identify the body of Linda Stoltzfoos.
The cause of death was asphyxia from strangulation, along with suffocation, the coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, said following the autopsy. He said the stab wound was a contributing factor in her death.
Stoltzfoos was last seen walking home from church in the Bird-in-Hand area on June 21, 2020.
Her remains were wrapped in a tarp and buried in a three-foot deep grave along railroad tracks behind Dutchland Inc, a business where Smoker had worked. It is in the small town of Gap along Route 41.
Smoker, 35, of Paradise, was charged with homicide in December 2020 after being arrested in August of that year.
Officials previously said that the suspect’s DNA was discovered on the victim’s stocking.
Bird-in-Hand is known for its large Amish population, and tourists come to visit the Amish Village heritage museum there.
Pennsylvania and Ohio have the highest concentration of Amish communities, with 50 in each state.