Cold case mystery: Sunday marks 20 years since deaths of Shawn Baur and Scott Fosnaught
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Sunday marks 20 years since a mystery that's haunted two local families and an entire community in Butler County.
The deaths of Seneca Valley High School students Shawn Baur and Scott Fosnaught on Cashdollar Road on July 17, 2002, have remained a mystery.
The 15-year-olds were with friends at a party and left to walk home. But they never made it.
The boys were found lying on the side of Cashdollar Road in Forward Township, just outside of Evans City. Baur was already dead and Fosnaught was barely alive. He was taken to the hospital but didn't survive.
"It's still a nightmare to us," Shawn's mother, Patty, said in 2012. "In one point because we don't know what happened, and no one has come forward even with reward money."
Investigators say the evidence at the scene, what little there was of it, has never added up. There were no skid marks, no broken glass and Fosnaught's blood was detected 184 feet from where he was found.
It's assumed it was a hit and run, but no one really knows exactly what happened. However, there've been many theories over the years.
"Scott got hit by a car and Shawn bent over to help him and they cracked him over the head," Shawn's father, Barry, said in 2012. "That's one big theory right there."
Twenty years later, the families are still left wondering who killed the boys. Was it an accident? Was it intentional? And, if so, why?
"Once it is solved, this will all end," said Ailive Rausch, Fosnaught's mother. "We can finally grieve our children."
Police said they still consider this case to be an open investigation, and they continue to ask anyone with any tips to come forward.