Case Closed: Beaver County detectives solve Hopewell murder fifty-one years later

HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Not much has changed at the Hopewell Community Park, but the mystery of what happened on a March night in 1974 remains.

“Even though most of those memories are lost, I’m certain people of Hopewell often wondered who killed Annette Rose Tokarz,” said Beaver County’s Chief Detective Pat Young.

It’s a question that has gone unanswered for decades.

“It was a terrible, horrible loss for our family and something you never get over. I can still remember and this is very hard,” said Sharon Lindner, who is Annette’s sister.

The Beaver County Detective Bureau picked up the case from Hopewell Township Police, even taking an old box of evidence from the department almost ten years ago.

“A long time ago, we gave up hope because there really wasn’t any evidence. There was DNA evidence but back then, there was no such technology,” said Colette Underwood who is Annette’s sister.

But that hope was never lost for those working on the case.

“I carry pictures of the scene on my phone, and I can’t tell you how many people I said, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’” Young said.

It’s that move that led Young to forensic genealogy. There was one piece of DNA - semen on the inside of 23-year-old Tokarz’s jacket that was never tested. Young, working with State Police, and various forensic companies, was able to create a family tree that ultimately led to four names.

One sticking out as it was all through the case file, Walton Sims.

“He was kind of the first person they looked at and rightfully so, 90 percent of all crimes of violence take place between people who know each other,” Young said.

Sims was Annette’s on-again, off-again boyfriend back in the 1970s but had an alibi in West Virginia at the time.

“He was interviewed by PSP, he was slotted for a polygraph at the time, but he never came in,” Young said.

But Sims’ brother did come in for that polygraph test.

“The only question he failed was ‘Do you know who is responsible for Annette’s murder?’”

Looking back through the case, the alibi wasn’t holding. But Sims died in 2015, so detectives had to get his children’s DNA to compare. Through a court order, that DNA was retrieved and sent to a paternity lab.

“They came back and said, ‘Yup, it’s like 99.756 percent that the CODIS profile matched the unknown sample.’” Young said.

“You are never going to have a why, but do you think having a who is enough for the family?” asked Channel 11’s Nicole Ford.

“I think it’s a start, it’s a start to closure. They’ve been living with not having the who for 51 years,” Young answered.

Channel 11, sitting down with Annette’s sister, that’s what they said as they sat in shock with finally closing this chapter.

“The people that did solve this recognized that she was a person, her potential was cut short. For us, it does bring us a sense of peace to know who did it because we had no idea that it would be her boyfriend,” Underwood said.

As for Sims, the District Attorney’s Office would have filed murder charges had he not died prior.

“I think he probably suffered during his life, just the guilt if he had a conscience,” Underwood said.

“I know he faced the ultimate of judges, and he got his reward,” Lindner said.

For now, they are just thankful for the answers and hope that collaboration continues in these agencies to bring this peace to other families like theirs.

“It’s worth it, it’s worth every penny to bring that closure to that family,” Beaver County District Attorney Nate Bible told Channel 11.

Beaver County Detectives Bureau emphasized that collaboration with the following organizations is what helped to close this case: Hopewell Township Police Department, State Police, including Trooper John Toner, PA State Police Bureau of Forensic Science: Serology and DNA Sections, Innovative Forensics Investigations, Othram, Beaver County Crime Solvers, Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers and Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center.

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