Chewing Gum Caught Her K!ller After 25 Years | The Christy Mirack Case

On the morning of December 21, 1992, 25-year-old sixth grade teacher Christy Mirack was found dead in her Lancaster County, Pennsylvania apartment. She had been preparing to bring Christmas gifts to her students at Rohrerstown Elementary School. Her killer had been inside her home for less than 30 minutes. He left behind DNA on her body and on the carpet beneath her — DNA that did not match anyone in any law enforcement database. The case went cold for 25 years. In 2018, investigators uploaded that DNA to a public genetic genealogy database through a small company called Parabon NanoLabs. The database returned a match — not to the killer, but to his half-sister, who had submitted her own DNA looking for distant relatives. From that match, investigators built a family tree and identified Raymond "DJ Freez" Rowe, a locally popular Lancaster disc jockey who had never been on their radar. They caught him by collecting his discarded chewing gum and water bottle at an elementary school where he was DJing. Rowe pleaded guilty in January 2019 and was sentenced to life without parole. But in August 2025, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court sent his post-conviction DNA testing appeal back to the Superior Court for reconsideration under updated state law. The Christy Mirack case, technically solved, is not yet closed. This is the full story of one of the foundational cases in American forensic genetic genealogy — the teacher who never came home for Christmas, the DJ who hid in plain sight for a generation, and the chewing gum that finally connected them.   If you have information about any open Pennsylvania cold case: 📞 Pennsylvania State Police: (717) 783-5575 📞 Lancaster County District Attorney's Office: (717) 299-8100) Sources: ABC News, CNN, Lancaster Online, Fox News, Fox 43, WITF (August 2025), A&E Cold Case Files, Lancaster County DA's Office, Pennsylvania Superior Court.   If this video moved you, please leave Christy Mirack's name in the comments. Subscribe to Unsolved & Unburied for more cases the world moved on from — both the ones still waiting for answers , and the long-buried truths that finally came to light. #ChristyMirack #TrueCrime #ColdCase #GeneticGenealogy #DJFreez #LancasterPA #ColdCaseSolved #UnsolvedAndUnburied #ColdCaseFiles #ForensicScience #ParabonNanoLabs #DNAEvidence #PennsylvaniaCrime #1992 #TrueCrimeCommunity