An Amish mother of two who was also six months pregnant was found dead from gunshot wounds inside her home in a rural Pennsylvania community. The shocking crime has left investigators baffled.
Rebekah Byler, 23, was found dead by a family member on Fish Flats Road in Sparta Township, about 40 miles southeast of Erie, Pennsylvania, after police were called to the scene yesterday around 12:30 p.m.
State police said they are investigating Byler’s death as a homicide, which is rare in parts of the Erie region with a large Amish population.
However, they said they are “aggressively investigating all available leads.”
Byler’s two other children were unharmed on the property when police found the body.
Rebekah Byler, 23, was found dead by a family member on Fish Flats Road in Sparta Township after police were called to the scene yesterday around 12:30 p.m.
Police have no suspects for the alleged crime as of Tuesday afternoon. The Erie Times-News reported.
An autopsy is pending and police have not yet released any further details.
Neighbors told WJET/WFXP that Byler was six months pregnant and it was her husband who made the horrifying discovery.
Byler was found with gunshot wounds, KDKA-TV reported.
The “heartbroken” community said Byler’s death has affected everyone who lives there.
‘Buncha good people, everyone seems to get along well with them. Everyone is just stunned. “Nobody could even imagine this kind of thing happening,” local resident Randy Eaton told WJET-TV.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful that something like this could happen here. There isn’t a person who isn’t worried. Everyone is shocked.”
“We are a very close-knit community and I am absolutely heartbroken by what has happened.” “I’m very concerned about the Amish community, I’m concerned about them,” said Spartansburg Pharmacy owner Charleen Hajec.
“This is very shocking, very shocking, and especially not knowing what happened and what is happening, but it is very, very shocking,” Hajec added.
Police are asking anyone in the Fish Flats Road area who may have seen suspicious people, cars or activity to contact them.
Police at the scene. Pennsylvania State Police said they are investigating Byler’s death as a homicide, which is rare in parts of the Erie region with a large Amish population.
In July 2021, a Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the 2020 death of an 18-year-old Amish girl.
Justo Smoker was sentenced to between 35 and a half and 71 years in prison, plus an additional 17 and a half years that could be added for violation of parole, for the death of Linda Stoltzfoos.
He also pleaded guilty to kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and possession of a criminal instrument.
The young woman’s remains were found in rural Pennsylvania in April 2021, 10 months after her disappearance.
The Lancaster County Coroner used dental records to positively identify the body of Linda Stoltzfoos.
The cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation, as well as suffocation, medical examiner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said after the autopsy. He said the stab wound was a contributing factor in his death.
Stoltzfoos was last seen walking home from church in the Bird-in-Hand area on June 21, 2020.
His remains were wrapped in a tarp and buried in a three-foot-deep grave next to the railroad tracks behind Dutchland Inc, a company where Smoker had worked. It is in the small town of Gap, off Route 41.
Smoker, 35, of Paradise, was charged with murder in December 2020 after being arrested in August of that year.
Authorities previously said the suspect’s DNA was discovered on the victim’s sock.
Bird-in-Hand is known for its large Amish population, and tourists come to visit the Amish Village heritage museum there.
Pennsylvania and Ohio have the largest concentration of Amish communities, with 50 in each state.