It was an exceptional fall day. Joggers and hikers enjoyed trails that snaked for some 28 miles throughout the 3500-acre Valley Forge National Historic Park outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the harsh winter of 1777-78, George Washington’s Continental Army had camped here, but on September 10, 1995, the weather was sunny and seasonal, even a bit warm. As early evening approached, it was still light enough to take a late-day walk.
Valley Forge Park
A hiker made his way through the woods along a trail at the foot of a tall, grassy embankment. Something caught his eye, and he looked up. He saw a cloth-covered bundle approximately 20 yards overhead in the bushes. It looked out of place—a discarded doll, perhaps, or someone’s picnic trash. He climbed up to retrieve it, but quickly realized it was no doll. It was a baby, a little girl. She lay chillingly still. When he was certain he couldn’t revive her, the hiker hurried away to contact park authorities. They called the police.
State trooper Brian Reppert responded. He parked on the access road above the spot and made his way down to where the child lay. He rolled her over, horrified that someone had killed her and dumped her out here. It hadn’t been long ago, he could tell. He picked her up. She was so light. Marking the spot where she had lain, he carried her to the top of the embankment to try to breathe life back into her. She failed to respond. Reppert gave up, called it in, and took the body to the nearby Phoenixville Hospital. A dispatcher notified Deputy Chief Tim Woodward, who notified Detective Bruce Saville from the Upper Merion Police Department and Detective Rich Peffall from Montgomery County.
Saville had been with UMPD for eighteen years, working mainly major crimes, robberies, sex offenses, and auto theft. He’d investigated several homicides. When he saw the child, he believed it would be easy to discover who she was: “We knew from her clothes that we were going to identify her quickly. She was dressed nicely.”
Woodward also called First Assistant District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. Having begun as an intern in the Montgomery County DA’s office Castor had served in the Sex Crimes, and then in Major Crimes Units, as well as taking charge of the Investigating Grand Jury. In 1991, he’d become Deputy DA and Chief of the Trials Division. A highly successful prosecutor, especially for death-penalty cases, Castor had been DA Michael Marino’s choice in 1993 for the position of First ADA. Thus, this case went to him.
Bruce L. Castor Jr.
“I had spent the entire day cutting the grass at our house,” Castor said. “It was hot, and the Eagles were playing in a rare Sunday-night game. I had just sat down to watch when the call came in. Being the hard-bitten experienced prosecutor I was, I informed my wife with confidence that I’d be home in a couple of hours. I thought it was obviously a parent who’d gotten angry at a child and had killed her in a fit of rage, and it wouldn’t take long to figure out who did it. So, not having had a shower since Friday morning, I left, figuring I would write a warrant and leave my associate in charge. Well, that was Sunday night. I didn’t come home till four o’clock in the morning on Wednesday.”
Around the same time, not far away, officers from the Limerick Police Department checked out a frantic call about a missing person. Around 9:00 PM, Jimmy Manderach’s relatives had alerted officials that his wife, Lisa, had gone out on a shopping trip six hours earlier with their 19-month-old daughter, Devon. The stores had closed long ago, but she had not returned.