D.A.: No solution to 1977 Bucks murder

A 36-year-old Bucks County murder mystery remains unsolved because DNA tests on the prime suspect conducted this year came back inconclusive, authorities said Friday.

The DNA belonged to Harry Ritterson, uncle of Shaun Ritterson, a 20-year-old whose gutted torso was found dumped on the side of Buckingham Mountain in June 1977.

Harry Ritterson came under renewed scrutiny last year after the Bucks County Courier Times ran a series reexamining the decades-old slaying.

Long considered a suspect, he gave statements to the newspaper that seemed to contradict what he told police after the killing, and authorities renewed their investigation with him as the prime suspect.

In January, he died of prostate cancer at 77. Authorities legally seized his DNA before he was buried.

That DNA was tested against hairs found with Shaun Ritterson's body, but the results were inconclusive, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said. He believed the age of the evidence may have played a role in the lack of results.

"It didn't exonerate our prime suspect or implicate him," Weintraub said of the test. As a result, no charges have been filed.

Harry Ritterson continually denied having any involvement in his niece's death.

In a telephone interview Friday, one of his sisters, Irene Ritterson, 67, maintained her brother's innocence and said authorities "should let him rest."

"We have our memories of him, and we know he's looking down on us," she said.