Police press hunt for Beau Zabel's killer

Nearly a month after the slaying of Beau Zabel, the young Minnesota man who moved to Philadelphia to work as a teacher, detectives continue tracking new leads and insist that the hunt for his killer is far from stalled.

This week's announcement of an increase in reward money - to $35,000 from $20,000 - will undoubtedly prompt a new batch of leads, police said.

With just one good tip, Homicide Detective William Holmes said, the search for the man who killed 23-year-old Zabel for his iPod would lead to: "Boom! We got him."

As he spoke from Police Headquarters this week, he gestured to a room where detectives were interviewing a man who might add knowledge to the case. As they probe for a break, police are looking at recently released felons, and rechecking old and new robbery cases. Homicide detectives have paired up with South Philadelphia officers to interview anyone who might help. They are also hopeful that tips may come in after the case is featured at 9 tonight on Fox's

America's Most Wanted

.

"I know that Philadelphia detectives are doing everything they can," Zabel's mother, Lana Zamora, said in an interview this week. A scholarship fund has been established in Zabel's name, and Zamora said she had been happy that her son, who moved to Philadelphia in early May, was pursuing his dreams of teaching in the inner city. But, she said, her voice cracking, "I just didn't think he'd be coming home six weeks later."

Two local businesses near the slaying scene have surveillance cameras that photographed Zabel after he left his temporary job at a Starbucks about 1:30 a.m. June 15 and passed near the Italian Market before he turned down the 800 block of Ellsworth Street, a block from home.

The cameras also captured obscure images of what appears to be a young man coming and going after the shooting, hiding an object in a flower pot in the meantime. He later retrieved the object - police theorize it could have been the murder weapon or Zabel's iPod - and tucked it in his waistband as he casually walked off. The shooting occurred out of camera range.

Holmes, who is working the case with his partner, Detective Levi Morton, said the man on the video appears to be in his 20s, African American, 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-9, and about 150 pounds. He was wearing a large new white T-shirt, dark jeans, and white Adidas sneakers with a clam-style toe and three black stripes on the sides.

Holmes said this killing immediately stood out.

"Here's a person who comes to our city to teach school. He had been in the city just over a month, and he's shot," Holmes said. "He's from out of town and he gets killed in our city."

Zabel graduated with high distinction in 2007 from Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., where he studied mathematics, Spanish, philosophy and computer science. He always wanted to be a math teacher, his mother said.

"He could have done anything with his math. He could have been an engineer," Zamora said. "He just had his heart set on teaching. He knew the value of an education."

He came to Pennsylvania because he had relatives here. The city's teaching fellowship program, meanwhile, would have allowed him to work in the classroom while he attended Drexel University to receive his certification.

Police believe the gunman approached Zabel from behind as he stepped into an area of shadows on Ellsworth, where tree branches cover street lights, and put a gun to the left side of Zabel's neck.

There may have been a brief struggle over the iPod before Zabel was shot in the neck, Holmes said. Zabel's front left pocket, where he always had carried his iPod, had been turned inside out. Only that device was stolen; Zabel's backpack still contained his identification, credit cards and $27.

At the murder scene, police found a 9mm shell casing. So far, they have found no match to casings found at other crimes.

A similar stickup occurred in the same neighborhood June 24, with officers interrupting an attempted robbery by two gunmen. They, too, had a gun to the neck of a young man with a backpack and were captured within minutes.

The younger gunman, who somewhat resembled the man in the grainy surveillance video, was armed with a 9mm gun. But it did not match the Zabel case weapon and police have ruled out a link between the cases.

The boost in reward money should turn up new information, police believe. Tips must go to the Citizens Crime Commission of Delaware Valley's tip line at 215-546-8477 (TIPS). Tipsters may remain anonymous and must receive a code from the operator.

"We're still really hopeful that somebody will come forth and tell us something, or give us some lead in the case so we can ultimately get the killer off the street," said Homicide Capt. James Clark.

To donate to the Beau Zabel Scholarship Fund, send checks to the First Farmers & Merchants Bank, 128 N. Main St., Austin, Minn. 55912. Checks should be made out to the Beau Zabel Scholarship Fund.