Missing man found slain in Penn Hills park
Two charged in abduction, killing
Friday, January 16, 2004
By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A chance encounter with an ill-intentioned pair who needed money and a ride ultimately led to the carjacking and violent death of missing bank executive Daniel Lynch, whose stabbed body was found Wednesday night in a Penn Hills park 72 hours after he was last reported seen. Allegheny County police yesterday announced the arrest of a Westmoreland County man in connection with Lynch's abduction and death. A female accomplice was accused of stealing money from Lynch's bank account by using his bank card.

"It appears to be a random crime of convenience," county police Assistant Superintendent James Morton said yesterday during a news conference. "It started out as a carjacking. They needed the vehicle to get back to Charleroi."

Police charged Robert Stringer Jr., 21, of Maple Avenue in Monessen, with criminal homicide. His friend, Joy Cochran, 33, of Pacific Boulevard in Monessen, was charged with access device fraud. Stringer was known to frequent numerous areas in the Mon Valley, crossing back and forth between Charleroi and Monessen. The pair was being held on detainers in the Westmoreland County Prison after their arrest Wednesday in Charleroi. Both were expected to be arraigned last night in Allegheny County. Police said Stringer had relatives in Pittsburgh's East Hills section, near the Blackridge neighborhood in Wilkinsburg where Lynch lived, which might be what drew the two to the same area.

On Sunday night, the last time Lynch, 56, was seen alive, he had just returned from a weekend trip to Chantilly, Va. He and business partner William McAfee, who together owned an antique shop in Brookline, were manning a booth at a flea market. Lynch drove home alone while McAfee made plans to continue on to another show in Florida.
At 9:37 p.m. Sunday, video surveillance cameras in the Penn Hills Giant Eagle at Verona and Frankstown roads captured Lynch inside the store. Police speculate he was approached in the parking lot by Stringer and somehow coerced into his vehicle, a distinctive orange Pontiac Aztek.

From there, Lynch was likely whisked to a PNC Bank automated teller machine on Homewood Avenue in Homewood. There, police said, Cochran made three consecutive withdrawals of $200 each using Lynch's ATM card
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Lynch was probably alive for no longer than several hours after that. McAfee said in an interview earlier this week that Lynch's door was found open and his dog outside in the yard, but police found no evidence that the banker ever returned to his Graham Boulevard home. Detectives instead think he was eventually driven to tiny Ross Park off Blackadore Avenue in Penn Hills. There, past the swing sets and benches, he was killed on the other side of a 4-foot-deep gully at the rear of the park. Police have not found a weapon. It was not clear why Lynch was slain.

"They took him back beyond the treeline. That's probably where the murder happened," Wilkinsburg police Chief Richard Dwyer said. "With the weather and the little ravine back there, I don't think anybody would have found him for a long time."

The next day, Monday, Lynch missed a doctor's appointment. He did not show up for work at Mellon Financial Corp. that day or the next.

On Tuesday night, police located Lynch's vehicle on a residential street in Charleroi where Wilkinsburg police, scouring Lynch's cell phone records, had determined that the phone had been used. Police believe the car was used for joy-riding.

By Wednesday night, through investigative techniques that police would not disclose, Stringer and Cochran were found in different parts of Charleroi and arrested. Police said both admitted to their involvement in the case and told police where to find Lynch's body. Lynch still had $1,000 in cash on him.