A homicide too hard to forget

Despite the passage of decades, many in the Chester County law-enforcement community have never forgotten a 15-year-old murder victim.

Senior Magisterial District Judge Stanley Scott, who retired in January 2010, was one of the Easttown Township officers who unearthed the body of Connie Evans, who disappeared on Oct. 24, 1964. "As a police officer, you have to move on, but it's always been in the back of my mind," he said, describing the tragic, gruesome discovery.

Don Miller, a retired Tredyffrin Township officer, labeled the case "traumatic." "Here's a nice, quiet community and suddenly you find a 15-year-old girl buried," Miller said. "We were all young cops, and sometimes it's hard to get images like that out of your mind."

Chester County President Judge James P. MacElree 2d recalled being on one of the search parties, during the 36 days between the girl's disappearance and the discovery of her remains. In fact, he said the experience piqued his interest in law enforcement. Before becoming a judge, he served as the county's District Attorney.

Chester County Chief Detective James Vito was Evans' next-door neighbor, and District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll remembered Evans as a grade-school classmate. Both said the voluminous case was reviewed many times over the years. For more information, see http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20111025_A_suspect_eyed_in_the_unsolved_1964_slaying_of_a_girl_in_West_Chester.html