Car found in E. Mt. Airy slaying

Investigators have found a car belonging to the 85-year-old East Mount Airy woman who was brutally murdered Monday, Philadelphia police said.

Regina Brunner was found Monday morning in her home, beaten and stabbed, with her throat slashed, homicide Capt. James Clark said. Her house was pristine, and investigators found no sign of forced entry.

Her car, however, was missing from the driveway. Investigators found it Tuesday morning around 11 a.m., parked on the 3100 block of Stillman Street in North Philadelphia - about six miles from Brunner's home.

Brunner worked at the Chestnut Hill Local newspaper two days a week. When she didn't show up for work on Monday, worried employees called her son, who then called police. She was found dead in her front bedroom, dressed for bed, a law enforcement source said.

Neighbors told police they hadn't seen anything suspicious - not a car pulling up to the house or a person on the street who seemed out of place, the source said.

Investigators on Tuesday were waiting on the results of an autopsy by the medical examiner's office. No motive is apparent in the case, Clark said. He said he has assigned the Homicide Task Force to the case.

"We're tracking down different leads, and hopefully we'll get to the bottom of it real quickly," he said.

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