Amish teen found dead after 10-month search was strangled, suffocated
An 18-year-old Amish woman found dead Wednesday was strangled and suffocated to death 10 months earlier, according to an autopsy.
Linda Stoltzfoos disappeared June 21, 2020, from Bird-in-Hand, Pa. Her body was discovered Wednesday near railroad tracks about 10 miles east.
Stoltzfoos died from asphyxiation due to strangulation and suffocation, Lancaster Online reported. She was also stabbed in the neck, the Lancaster County coroner said Friday. Her identity was confirmed through dental records.
Justo Smoker, 35, is accused of kidnapping and killing Stoltzfoos. He pleaded not guilty to criminal homicide, kidnapping and false imprisonment, according to Lancaster Online. Smoker has been held without bail in Lancaster County Prison since July 11.
Stoltzfoos was walking home from church in Bird-in-Hand, about 55 miles west of Philadelphia, when she disappeared. Authorities found her body Wednesday buried near railroad tracks in the town of Gap.
The makeshift grave was a near a business where Smoker worked, according to prosecutors. Police did not say what led them to the site.
Smoker previously served more than 12 years in prison for a series of armed robberies and was released in February 2019, around 14 months before Stoltzfoos’ death, Lancaster Online reported.
