A sad anniversary for the family of Erma Kaylor, 83, a woman killed in her Lancaster apartment on May 16, 2012. A year after her murder, her killer is still on the loose.
Community activist Becky Holzinger is on a mission to gather signatures for a petition she hopes will help solve Kaylor’s murder.
“To bring in outside help,” she said. “A pair of fresh eyes to look at what the police have and maybe bring up new leads.”
A neighbor found Kaylor with her throat slashed in her apartment on the 200 block of West Vine Street.
Yari Ortiz stopped to sign Holzinger’s petition. She lived just around the corner from the woman’s home.
“It’s sad to see that they don’t have her killer yet,” Ortiz said. “We don’t know, we could be in a restaurant sitting and that person could be there. We could be in a movie theater, that person could be there. You’d never know.”
Lt. Michael Winters is the lead detective on the case. He said the investigation is still very active.
“It’s not a cold case, a cold case is a case that has no leads whatsoever and we’ve exhausted every lead, we haven’t done that in this case,” Winters said. “There are still avenues to investigate.”
Winters admits it has been frustrating to go a year without an arrest. But he’s more concerned about getting it right and giving her family closure.
“The family knows that we’re working hard on this case,” he said. “I stay in regular contact with them. And I feel like they’re the ones that I really need to work for, because they’ve lost a loved one, and they’re the ones who really need us to work hard for them.”
Lancaster Crimestoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and a conviction in this case. You can call (800) 322-1913 to leave an anonymous tip. To send it via anonymous text, text LANCS plus your message to 847411.