Raymond Rowe, DJ Freez: Mirack Case, Genetic Genealogy, Guilty Plea

Raymond Rowe, the Lancaster County wedding and club DJ known as “DJ Freez,” is serving life in prison without parole for the 1992 rape and murder of 25-year-old elementary school teacher Christy Mirack. The Raymond Rowe DJ Freez murder case sat cold for more than 25 years until investigators used genetic genealogy — uploading crime-scene DNA to a public ancestry database — to identify him in 2018. He pleaded guilty in January 2019 and has since lost multiple attempts to reopen the case through new DNA testing.

The Killing of Christy Mirack

Christy Mirack taught sixth grade at Rohrerstown Elementary School. On the morning of December 21, 1992, she didn’t show up for work. A staff member went to her townhome in East Lampeter Township and found her body on the living room floor. She was still wearing a coat and gloves, apparently attacked as she was leaving for school.¹

Two neighbors reported hearing a scream from the home between 7:10 and 7:20 that morning. The autopsy documented severe blunt force trauma, including a fractured jaw and injuries to her face, neck, back, and chest. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. A wooden cutting board found near her body was identified as one of the weapons.¹

A Case That Went Cold for 25 Years

East Lampeter Township police, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the FBI collected DNA from the crime scene and from Mirack’s body. The profile went into a national law enforcement database but produced no match, and the case sat unsolved for nearly a quarter century.¹

In 2016, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office took over the investigation under District Attorney Craig Stedman and began working with Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based forensic technology company. In November 2017, Parabon generated a DNA phenotype composite predicting the killer’s appearance, including age-progressed images, and released it publicly to try to shake loose leads.¹

How Genetic Genealogy Identified Rowe

The real break came when Parabon converted the crime-scene DNA into a genotype file and uploaded it to GEDmatch, a public genetic genealogy database. The upload returned matches to distant relatives. CeCe Moore, Parabon’s head genealogist, built out the family tree and used public records and Lancaster-area newspaper archives to narrow the tree to one person whose background, location, and ancestry fit: Raymond Charles Rowe.²

On May 14, 2018, Parabon formally notified Lancaster County detectives that Rowe was a “strong viable suspect.” The Mirack investigation was one of the earliest criminal cases solved this way, coming just weeks after the arrest of the Golden State Killer suspect in California brought forensic genealogy into public view. Stedman later said, “But for Parabon and the lab work they did, I don’t think we would’ve solved this case.”³

The Water Bottle, the Gum, and the Arrest

Investigators still needed a direct sample of Rowe’s DNA to confirm the match. On May 31, 2018, Rowe was working a DJ gig at Smoketown Elementary School. Officers quietly collected a water bottle and chewing gum he discarded during the event.⁴ The Pennsylvania State Police crime lab matched that DNA to samples taken from Mirack’s body and from the carpet at the scene.¹

Rowe was arrested at his home on the afternoon of June 25, 2018, and charged with criminal homicide. He was arraigned that evening and held at Lancaster County Prison without bail, which Pennsylvania law does not allow for homicide defendants.⁴

Confessions, Guilty Plea, and Sentence

Rowe confessed repeatedly after his arrest. The day after he was taken into custody, he told a capital case defense investigator he had been having a secret affair with Mirack and had gone to her home on December 21, 1992, to end things because she was going to tell his wife. He said they began having sex, and when she wanted to stop, “I snapped. I just snapped.”⁵

He repeated those admissions to his trial attorneys, David Blanck and Patricia Spotts, telling them “he did it” and that “he snapped.” Blanck later testified Rowe “repeatedly said he wanted to plead guilty” and refused to look at autopsy reports or crime scene photographs. Rowe described his violence to Blanck as “his thug days coming through” and told Spotts it was “the thug part of my life when I was using cocaine.”⁶

The state had filed notice of intent to seek the death penalty. Later testimony indicated that as part of the plea arrangement, then-District Attorney Stedman agreed not to file charges in a separate, unrelated matter if Rowe pleaded guilty to the Mirack case.⁶

On January 8, 2019, Rowe appeared before Lancaster County President Judge Dennis E. Reinaker and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, rape, and related charges. Spotts told the court, “He has told us that he did it. The person standing beside me has admitted his guilt.” Rowe personally apologized to the Mirack family. Judge Reinaker sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus a consecutive term of 60 to 120 years.⁷

Christy Mirack’s brother, Vince Mirack, spoke for the family and addressed Rowe directly: “Why? Why are we sitting here today?” Stedman later said publicly that a definitive answer about motive might never be known, given how much time had passed.⁸

The DJ Freez Double Life

Rowe’s arrest stunned Lancaster County. Born and raised there, he had worked as a shipper at a local company before building a career as an entertainer. He was the resident DJ at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster for more than a decade and worked events across the region. To much of the public, he was simply the man behind the music at weddings, school dances, and community events. People who knew him personally called the charges “unimaginable.”⁹

Where the Case Stands Now

After pleading guilty, Rowe reversed course. He filed a motion under the Pennsylvania Post-Conviction Relief Act asking for DNA testing on five items from the crime scene that had never been tested: a wooden cutting board, a toaster, a pair of pants, a sweater, and an undershirt. He wanted “Touch DNA” analysis using Next Generation Sequencing, arguing the newer method could better distinguish DNA from multiple contributors. Through new counsel, he claimed he had consensual sex with Mirack that morning and that an unknown attacker came in and killed her after he left.⁵

On April 12, 2022, the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas denied the motion. The court found effective DNA testing technology already existed when Rowe pleaded guilty and that his defense had chosen not to pursue it. Spotts testified the defense intentionally avoided further testing because they “didn’t want Rowe’s DNA to be found anywhere else and incriminate him further.”¹⁰ The Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed on April 18, 2023.¹¹

On August 1, 2025, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated that ruling and sent the case back down. The high court found the lower courts had failed to apply an updated version of state law that broadened access to post-conviction DNA testing, relying on its June 17, 2025, decision in Commonwealth v. Hardy.¹²

On remand, the Superior Court applied the broader Hardy standard and, in an opinion filed January 22, 2026, again affirmed the denial. The court found Rowe still could not show a “reasonable probability” that testing would yield exculpatory results making it more likely than not that a juror would find him not guilty. Rowe’s DNA had been recovered from semen on and inside Mirack’s body. She was still in her coat and gloves when she was attacked, with Christmas packages in the foyer, indicating she was overtaken while preparing to leave rather than after any consensual encounter. The court called Rowe’s theory of an unknown assailant “wholly unsupportable” and “incongruent” with the physical evidence, his multiple confessions to his own lawyers, and his guilty plea.⁵

Rowe remains in prison, serving life without the possibility of parole.¹³

1
Lancaster County, PA. Christy Mirack Homicide Investigation
2
ABC News. DNA, Genetic Genealogy Led to Wedding DJ Facing Criminal Homicide Charge
3
ABC News. DNA, Genetic Genealogy a Major Game Changer
4
ABC News. DNA From Gum, Water Bottle Leads to DJ’s Arrest
5
PA Courts. Commonwealth v. Rowe, 2026 PA Super 13
6
LancasterOnline. Raymond ‘DJ Freez’ Rowe’s Former Lawyers Say He Confessed to Killing Christy Mirack
7
Lancaster County, PA. Raymond Rowe Guilty Plea
8
Crimewatch. ‘He Did It’ — Raymond Rowe Admits Killing Christy Mirack in 1992
9
Local 21 News. Who Is Raymond Rowe, the Man Accused of Killing Christy Mirack
10
Local 21 News. Raymond Rowe Alleges Innocence, Seeks New DNA Testing
11
PA Courts. Commonwealth v. Rowe, 2023 PA Super 69
12
WITF. Appeals Court Ordered to Reconsider Bid for DNA Testing in Christy Mirack Murder
13
Crimewatch. Superior Court Affirms Denial of Raymond Rowe’s Motion for Post-Conviction DNA Testing