Howe was stolen near the corner of West First Street on October 27 while heading home from a Girl Scouts Halloween celebration in Oil City.
Dan Paden, a nearby citizen, was present throughout the kidnapping and provided detectives with information about the situation, the kidnapper, and the getaway car.
A portion of Howe’s gymnastic outfit was discovered two days later beside an abandoned railroad bed in a remote, forested region in the adjacent township of Rockland by a member of her family.
Howe was kidnapped and thrown alive from a railroad trestle bridge into a dry, rocky stream bed at Coulter’s Hole in Rockland. It was the place where
she died from blunt force wounds to the head and chest.
