Police Find Missing Whitehall Woman's Cell Phone, Evidence Linking Suspect To Same Area
SOUTH SIDE (KDKA) -- Police say they found a missing Whitehall woman's cell phone on the South Side, along with evidence linking the key suspect in her disappearance to the area.
Elizabeth Wiesenfeld, 67, was reported missing after she failed to show up for work on April 30 and family members were not able to get in touch with her.
Forty-seven-year-old Douglas Berry, a handyman who knew her family, is the key suspect in her disappearance. Berry is a convicted felon who did work on Wiesenfeld's Whitehall home.
Detectives now think Berry used Wiesenfeld's phone after she disappeared.
"He used her phone and he sent a text message, and we pinged a tower and we put him on the South Side," Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala said.
Zappala said county detectives and his team of attorneys also have proof that Berry was in the South Side at the same exact time.
Berry is behind bars for a gun charge after detectives searched his Liberty Borough home and found a loaded gun.
Berry's defense attorney requested a bond hearing Wednesday, but the judge denied his bond to keep him in jail while detectives work quickly.
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"I hope, I hope they find her alive and in good condition, but... her age and the background of the individual that we believe is responsible for this, and that person is obviously innocent until proven guilty, but I'm not optimistic that we're going to find her alive," Zappala said.
Whitehall Police say they found blood in Wiesenfeld's bed, and her car and dog were left behind.
Right now, Berry is not charged in connection to Wiesenfeld's disappearance, but his court paper says, "Denied bail. Prime suspect in the case of a missing woman presumed to be dead."