Christy Mirack Case: Genetic Genealogy, Guilty Plea, and Appeals

The Christy Mirack murder case was solved in 2018 when genetic genealogy identified Raymond Rowe, a well-known Lancaster County wedding DJ known as “DJ Freez,” as the man who beat, strangled, and sexually assaulted the 25-year-old elementary school teacher in her East Lampeter Township townhome on December 21, 1992. Rowe pleaded guilty in January 2019 to first-degree murder, rape, and related charges and was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 60 to 120 additional years.¹

What Happened on December 21, 1992

Christy Mirack taught at Rohrerstown Elementary School near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. On the Monday morning she was killed, her roommate left for work around 7:00 a.m. and confirmed Mirack was still home. Neighbors later reported hearing a high-pitched scream between 7:10 and 7:20 a.m. When she was found, she was wearing her coat and gloves, suggesting she had been about to leave for her usual 7:30 a.m. departure. A wooden cutting board lay near her body.²

When Mirack didn’t show up for work, principal Harry Goodman called her apartment five times, phoned her mother, and then drove to the complex himself. Her car was in the lot, iced over. The apartment door was slightly ajar. He entered the living room, found her body on the floor, and ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911.³

The autopsy ruled the death a homicide by strangulation. Mirack had also suffered severe blunt force trauma to her neck, back, upper chest, and face, including a broken jaw, and there was evidence of sexual assault. Investigators collected multiple DNA samples from her body and from the carpet beneath her, and entered the profiles into national databases. No match came back.²

Twenty-Six Years Cold

East Lampeter Township Police, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the FBI all worked the case, but it went cold. Investigators posted it online in 2008 and set up a Facebook page in 2009 in an attempt to generate new leads.⁴ Mirack’s mother died without ever learning who killed her daughter.⁵

In 2016, Lancaster County Detectives took over the case and contracted Parabon NanoLabs. Parabon first used the crime scene DNA to generate a phenotype composite, a visual prediction of the suspect’s hair color, eye color, and skin tone. Investigators released the composite in November 2017. It drew media coverage but no actionable leads.²

How Genetic Genealogy Identified Raymond Rowe

In early May 2018, Parabon forensic artist Thom Shaw pitched Lancaster County Detective Christopher Erb on a newer service called Snapshot Genetic Genealogy, which compared crime scene DNA against public genealogy databases and historical records. On May 9, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s office authorized the work, and the DNA profile was uploaded to GEDmatch, a free public genealogy website where users voluntarily share their genetic data.⁶⁷

Investigative genealogist CeCe Moore, working with Parabon, found second-cousin matches to the unknown suspect. She built a family tree back to the great-grandparents of those matches, then worked forward, looking for a descendant in the right place with the right ancestral background. She cross-referenced her findings with local newspaper archives, including engagement announcements and old interviews, and within a couple of days identified Raymond Charles Rowe as a strong suspect. She also reviewed Rowe’s social media as part of the process.³⁸

On May 14, 2018, Parabon told detectives who they were looking at. The next step was to confirm the match with Rowe’s own DNA, without tipping him off.

The Chewing Gum and Water Bottle

On May 31, 2018, Rowe was working as a DJ at an event at Smoketown Elementary School. Undercover detectives collected chewing gum and a water bottle he discarded there. The Pennsylvania State Police crime lab tested the items and matched the DNA to samples recovered from Mirack and the crime scene. The probability of the match belonging to someone other than Rowe was calculated at 1 in 200 octillion for the Caucasian population.²

Who Raymond Rowe Was

Rowe, 49 at the time of his arrest on June 25, 2018, was one of the most popular DJs in central Pennsylvania. He performed as “DJ Freez” and ran Freez Entertainment, which employed two other DJs and his wife. He worked roughly 150 events a year, mostly weddings, proms, and Sweet 16 parties, and had bookings on the books through 2020. His social media featured photos with celebrities including Paris Hilton and Hulk Hogan.⁹

Detective Christopher Erb charged Rowe with criminal homicide the day after the arrest. Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman called it “long-overdue closure for Christy’s family and friends who have spent decades wondering who brutally murdered their loved one.”²

The Guilty Plea and Life Sentence

On January 8, 2019, Rowe pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, three counts of rape by forcible compulsion, two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and related charges.¹⁰ The plea was part of an agreement to avoid the death penalty.¹¹ Lancaster County President Judge Dennis E. Reinaker accepted the terms and sentenced Rowe to life without parole plus a consecutive 60 to 120 years.¹

Vince Mirack, Christy’s brother, addressed Rowe directly at the hearing: “Why? Why are we sitting here today?” Rowe turned to the family and said, “I can’t imagine what you are going through. I apologize.”¹

What Rowe Told His Own Attorneys

Testimony that came out later in the appeals process filled in what happened inside Mirack’s townhome that morning, according to Rowe’s own account to his lawyers. Former assistant public defender Patricia Spotts and co-counsel David Blanck testified that Rowe confessed to them in multiple conversations. He said he and Mirack had been having a secret affair; that they had sex at her townhome on the morning of December 21, 1992; and that when she threatened to tell his wife about the relationship, he “snapped.” He attributed the violence to “his thug days coming through” and said he had been using cocaine at the time. His attorneys said Rowe was “adamant” about pleading guilty and that they could not ethically put him on the stand to deny what he had admitted to them.¹²

There was also a second pressure on the plea. Then-District Attorney Stedman was prepared to file criminal charges against Rowe in a separate, unrelated matter. Stedman offered to withhold those charges if Rowe pleaded to the Mirack murder by the end of 2018. The nature of the additional charges was never publicly disclosed. Rowe’s defense team testified that the threat weighed on him, particularly because of how it could affect his prison privileges and his ability to see his wife and daughter.¹²

Rowe’s Ongoing Appeals

Rowe began challenging his conviction almost immediately. He now claims the sex with Mirack was consensual and that he left her townhome while she was still alive, meaning someone else killed her. He argues he was coerced into pleading guilty to avoid the death penalty.¹³

In 2020, Rowe filed a motion for post-conviction DNA testing on items from the crime scene that had not been tested for “touch DNA,” including a wooden cutting board, a toaster, a pair of pants, and two pieces of the victim’s clothing. He argued new testing might identify another person’s DNA and establish his innocence. The trial court denied the request, and the Superior Court of Pennsylvania initially affirmed.¹⁴

In August 2025, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the Superior Court to reconsider under its recent decision in Commonwealth v. Hardy, which addressed the standard for post-conviction DNA testing requests by defendants who had pleaded guilty. On January 22, 2026, the Superior Court again affirmed the denial. The court distinguished Rowe’s case from Hardy, citing “irrefutable DNA test results” from semen found on the victim matching Rowe and the confessions to his defense team. Even under the new standard, the court found Rowe had not shown a reasonable probability that additional testing would lead a juror to find him not guilty. His theory that a third-party attacker entered the home minutes after he left was, the court wrote, “incongruent” with the totality of the evidence.¹⁴

Rowe’s attorney, Todd Mosser, filed a further petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in early 2026, arguing that the Superior Court “accepted the commonwealth’s evidence and inferences therefrom as true without any critical analysis.” As of mid-2026, the state Supreme Court had not acted on that petition. Rowe remains incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Waymart.¹³

1
Lancaster County, PA. Raymond Rowe Plea and Sentencing
2
Lancaster County, PA. Christy Mirack Homicide Investigation
3
ABC News. DNA Genetic Genealogy Led to Wedding DJ Facing Criminal Charges
4
LancasterOnline. Christy Mirack Murder Case to Be Featured on Cold Case Files
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PennLive. New DNA Technology Leads to Arrest
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LancasterOnline. How They Got Rowe: Pitch From DNA Firm Was Last Shot to Crack Mirack Killing
7
WGAL. Same Genetics Company Used in Golden State Killer and Christy Mirack Investigations
8
LancasterOnline. Christy Mirack Case Mentioned in Megyn Kelly Interview With Investigative Genealogist CeCe Moore
9
LancasterOnline. Wedding Industry Professionals Scramble to Help Couples Who Booked DJ Freez
10
Crimewatch. Christy Mirack’s Killer Has Post-Conviction Petition Denied
11
CBS 21 News. Cold Case Plea: Raymond Rowe Admits Guilt to Brutal Mirack Murder
12
LancasterOnline. Raymond Rowe’s Former Lawyers Say He Confessed to Killing Christy Mirack
13
LancasterOnline. DJ Freez Rowe Appeals to PA Supreme Court Over Bid for DNA Testing in Mirack Case
14
Superior Court of Pennsylvania. Commonwealth v. Rowe, 2026 PA Super 13