Different angles in the Branagan Case…
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Categories: Cold Case News, Forensics, Help the Cops!, Unsolved, Vidocq Unscripted
Tags: Autopsy, Bethlehem, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Knife Attack, Moira "Holly" Branagan, Pennsylvania, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim
@ Starkrial:
Hi. Didn’t see your post when I posted.
Yes, it’s not all that far from the Branagan’s house. And it’s really close to the LoneStar office, too, like half a mile.
Folks have memories of parties and other things on that street.
There aren’t that many dwellings on that little one block stretch, but a specific number came up. 23.
@ Starkrial:
“older greaser types”
Bingo.
@ Frediano:
Some people just smoked a little weed, not to be confused with heavy hitters. Speed freaks were a whole different group. As for the TMI thing, I don’t know of one person who was reacting crazily. I was in Hollywood at the time and I was more concerned because of media coverage than my friends and family still located here.
Parties at Santee Mill? All I recall of Santee Mill Road is that it was a cool place to take a ride, ditch the cops and cut through the corn fields….not too many houses at the time. We would go to the creek and hang out sometimes but that was on the other side of Center Street. More by Bridal Path and Macada. Still very close walking distance to the Mill and Holly’s house.
There was also Liberty Grange which was an old church renamed The Place. Played music, hung out and that was at the end of Altonah Road where it ends at Macada Rd.
Gumby, did you say you have photos of Holly with her classmates at the Mill? Please share. There are so few photos of Holly.
@ Starkrial:
Some people just smoked a little weed, not to be confused with heavy hitters. Speed freaks were a whole different group. As for the TMI thing, I don’t know of one person who was reacting crazily. I was in Hollywood at the time and I was more concerned because of media coverage than my friends and family still located here.
That is pretty much exactly my memories of the times, too.
I was here, that day, and I know lots of people who were in the Lehigh Valley that day, and I’ve asked a ton of folks if they even knew of anyone who acted strangely that day, and I can’t find a single example. Most everyone has the same recollection: being aware of what was going on at TMI, and interested, and alert, but … mostly just going about their normal job. Just, with an ear to the radio, just in case. Reasonably aware and alert, not panicking.
Now, folks within sight of the TMI plant, in Harrisburg, some of them were evacuating, packing their cars. Maybe within 5 miles. That is understandable.
But, 80-90 miles to the east, at 23 West Dewberry Ave of all places, it would have been a sign of extreme ‘fringe’ behavior for someone to actually ‘have the car packed’ that day. That is the only claim of that by anyone anywhere in the Lehigh valley that I’m aware of.
A sign of being pushed right to the edge, a half mile from the LoneStar office, and on the way to the Branagan’s home, not far away, on the first day of the TMI accident, still not declared under control when Holly was murdered.
To me, like waving a giant red flag.
@ Gumby, it would be great to have some photographs of Holly, smiling, in the company of friends. Please do scan them in and send them to me as .jpg files. Thanks! V
@Starkrial, I thought from our previous conversations that you didn’t grow up in Bethlehem.
The TMI theory isn’t doing anything for me. We would have been 17, in school, not fully aware of what was happening. Quite honestly, I have zero recollection of ANY TMI accident in 1979.
We would hang out by the train trestles by Santee Mill.
@Frediano, were you in Bethlehem on the day in question, if so, why?
As for drug dealers, if my memory is correct, most of us grew our own weed. I can’t remember where we used to get “speed” from; I have reached out to a few classmates for some “drug history’.
Born and raised, left in 1971 and returned again in 1975. Moved to CA until the 80′s and came back to Bethlehem a few years ago.
What previous conversations? You must be referring to my posts, I believe I mentioned living in Hollywood, etc. Did a lot of traveling back in the 70′s and 80′s.
I agree about TMI, my parents were not that concerned about it either. I heard it on the news out in LA and called home but everyone was chill about it. Guess the media hyped it a bit. My Mom was way more concerned about the young girl, Holly, being murdered. She was a nurse and had taken care of Mrs. Branagan at St. Lukes some time before she eventually passed. They also both went to St. Ann’s church. So the murder was much more on her mind. She thought I might have known Holly but being 5 years older it wouldn’t have been likely.
@ Gumby:
Assuredly, there was a Three Mile Island nuclear accident on March 28, 1979, and it was all over the radio that day. This is a historical fact. This isn’t an even remotely controversial claim, it is historical fact, easily verified.
Upthread, I posted recordings of newscasts from the radio that day, which would have been heard on WAEB every hour on the hour.
It’s reasonable that 17 year old kids in school might not have been generally aware of the TMI accident as it was unfolding, at least, until they got home from school that day.
But that is for sure not the case of twenty/thirty somethings at work, or older folks in the area. It was hardly a well kept secret.
There were plenty of folks in the Lehigh Valley who listened to the radio, WAEB, either at work or in the car or at home.
I lived in the Lehigh Valley that day, but worked in Phillipsburg, NJ, and the folks I worked with were all generally aware of the TMI accident, even as they stayed at work and did their normal jobs and did not have the car packed to flee the area.
Yes, I remember having a high school bud in the early 70′s, worked at a chip&put place in Dornyeville, who was growing his own weed out next to the 4th hole at the Chip&Put. Sure enuf.
But weed wasn’t the only drug of choice, and even with that, home grown wasn’t the only source.
I’m not sure I get your point. It’s not that controversial to suggest that there were drug dealers around in the 70′s, even if there were kids fooling around with grow lamps.
Is that really a stretch? The papers were full of drug busts. Who were they busting? It wasn’t all kids with grow lamps.
I just went back to check my original link to the TMI broadcasts, but that link has been removed.
No problem, there are tons of them: Here are alternatives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmmdh8Xlbvg
This is the mixed messages that we were hearing on the radio that day. It wasn’t until the second or third day that the incident had actually been declared as ‘under control.’
One of the key events that reassured people that the event had been rendered under control was the eventual visit by President Carter and his wife, but that didn’t happen for a few days.
If you think, after listening to these recordings, that this was news buried on P8, then think again. Folks 80-90 miles away were ‘interested,’ but not panicking.
Isn’t 23 West Dewberry a Liberty school district address?
Gumby,
Can you send Vidocq some photos? It really would be great to see her in a natural setting having a good time with friends as Vidocq said. I have only ever seen the photo from the newspaper articles. The same photo. Looking forward to seeing them.
@ Gumby:
Gumby wrote:
No idea why that would be important. To the best of my knowledge, the folks living there would have been in their late twenties at the time, not school age, one of them having graduated from Liberty in 1969.
This was 1979, ten years after one of them would have graduated HS.
@ Starkrial:
RE: I agree about TMI, my parents were not that concerned about it either. I heard it on the news out in LA and called home but everyone was chill about it. Guess the media hyped it a bit. My Mom was way more concerned about the young girl, Holly, being murdered.
The timing on that is messed up a little bit.
1] The TMI accident began at 4:00am on Wed, March 28, 1979. At most, it was on the radio that day.
2] Holly wasn’t murdered until apparently later that day, around 5:00pm that afternoon. So, all during that day, nobody is concerned about Holly’s murder, it hasn’t happened yet. The only ‘news’ that day — the day Holly was murdered — was the firstr initial day of the TMI accident.
3] The next day, we woke up to the papers, and there were two breaking stories — the reporting of Holly’s murder, and the news of TMI. But, this is Thursday, the 29th, not Wed, the 28th. There is nothing in the papers about Holly on the 28th, the only news is TMI. That’s the day we all learned about Holly, but that day was the second day of TMI. Reports were on the radio already of TMI on Wednesday, before Holly was murdered.
So, the only day that anyone could be ‘way more concerned about the young girl” would have been way after the murder, the next day.
I’ve been talking about people reacting on Wednesday to the news of TMI on the radio, before Holly was murdered, which it assuredly was.
Yes, after the fact, the news of Holly was much more disturbing. But that was after the fact, not before the fact…
@ Frediano: I am not doubting TMI to be an actual fact at all, merely that I had no recollection of it, therefore assuming that most of us “kids” were not in a panic, because we were unaware. So, if there was some drugged TMI runaway, it would have to have been a person of age much older than we were.
I have been flipping through my yearbooks like a crazed fool. So many faces jump out at me, many of which I place with Holly, but can’t remember why. I guess I shouldn’t list any standout names here???
I have vague memories of going to some house with some “squatters”, who were doing more than just drugs I wasn’t familiar with.
I absolutely remember the jamming sessions at the old church, we used to hide in the forested corner across the street or the cemetery and spy. I remember lots of motorcycles and dukes of hazard looking cars.
As well, on Thursday, it couldn’t have been until the evening papers that Holly’s murder was reported. So, TMI had already been cooking along for nearly two full days before we knew about Holly’s murder.
@ Gumby:
So, if there was some drugged TMI runaway, it would have to have been a person of age much older than we were.
Exactly. I believe that to be the case. Approx 10 years older, to be exact.
@ Frediano: FYI: We also used to go to bars in NJ, since the drinking age was 18 and it was so easy to change or obtain a fake ID; so it would be very easy to meet older or unsavory people.
Gumby wrote:
There we go, it is going to be through memories like that that real progress is made. I remember the type well. Not necessarily a MENSA convention. (” Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do… “)
Not necessarily EINSTEINS.
Not necessarily universally in full recognition of what planet they were on at any given moment, even if for the most part they were fine, upstanding human beings…
And, exactly like some of the folks who surprisingly showed up at “B”s commitment hearing in 1981, saying all kinds of murky crap about “B”. People we’d never seen before in our lives, in the context of “B”‘s ‘friends.’ Not kids. Older. Clearly, druggie thugs.
So, What part of me is supposed to assume, on the day of TMI, with the murky news on the radio about a potential melt down at TMI, that such a group of not quite MENSA/EINSTEINS would uniformly and universally react with reason and lucidity… as opposed to wax reptilian, and crawl over whoever they had to survive the impending radiation cloud?
You know, I’m willing to bet that there was at least one or two complete nutjobs in that group, totally wigged out over TMI…
What type of autopsies were done back then, did they screen blood levels and, respectfully, “other” things???
Frediano,
I spoke to my family on that Friday evening, the 30th. Our usual night for weekly phone calls. Two whole days after the murder and one day after the discovery of Holly’s body. So you are right, no one was thinking about Holly until TMI was blowing over a little and now the big news, at least for adults, was the teenager found stabbed to death. Since my then-boyfriend lived very near to the house his dad also called us about the murder. He was a pediatrician in town and he knew the Branagans. Again neither my ex nor I knew her or Sean. And he, by the way, went to Liberty as close as he lived to the Liberty Freedom border.
As for West Dewberry Avenue. I know it well. There were only four houses, all pretty nice and well kept. Considered a nice section of town. Lots of privacy and yes, it was in the Liberty High school district. Does that matter?
Gumby,
Since you are younger and I would have been gone as of 1971, you must have come upon “The Place” after the hippies because I never saw any bikers except for one hippie guy that also sang and never ever did I see Dukes of Hazard cars. What exactly are they anyway?
Most people in 1970 and 71 had vw’s and corvairs, even a few minis were around. Any photos of Holly in your yearbook? Maybe in the Glee Club or in the soccer photos? She was affiliated with both. As a Freedom student can you get access to any yearbooks from 79?
Gumby wrote:
Remember it well, you’re right.
However, I don’t think in this case it was actually necessary for Holly or any of her school friends to meet up with any unsavory people. I think they might have inadvertently been dragged into Holly’s life, in fact, in some odd way, in an attempt to look out for her on that day, that went bad.
“B” was a twenty something young girl, single, Mr. Branagan’s long term (like 5 years) executive secretary. She had babysat for the Branagan kids. She had house-sat for the Branagans. She doted over Mr. Branagan, looked after him, was concerned about him and his family.
She also apparently had a kind of wild side, and had a fling with some bad boys. Including, claims by some that she had partied at 23 West Dewberry from time to time, where she might have bragged up her rich boss and his nice house on Pine Top Trail, not too far away.
On the day of TMI, that Wed, Mr. Branagan is in AC. She is his secretary, and knows this. She has little to do at work all day but listen to the radio, and think, and worry. She would have known that Holly was coming home alone, from school. She would have been concerned about Holly. I find it unimaginable, on that day, knowing that Mr. Branagan was in AC, with TMI potentially requiring an evacuation, it wasn’t clear, that she would not have been concerned about Holly, home alone.
Not her boyfriend, but his roomate, has publicly bragged that on that day, he and his roomate ‘had the car packed for Florida’ to beat the rush.
But, who planned for TMI? It just showed up that day. So, what do they need? They need to hurriedly pack the car. They need to pack their things. They need to beat the rush. If they are wrong, they all turn around and come back. If they are right, they beat the panciked rush out of the Lehigh Valley.
And if they are right, they need to plan to have enough money to fund their new life in the Radiation Free Zone. What was that that “B” had been telling them about her well to do boss and his nice house on the hill?
Maybe this sounds reasonable to “B”. Maybe she tries to convince Holly this is the best thing to do, under the circumstances. Maybe Holly tries to contact her father in AC, but can’t get a hold of him, and so, on her 17 year old self, she checks the 5:00 news, sees there is really no widespread panic, assesses this plan and calls bullshit on it. And this sets one of the ‘planners’ off, a privileged rich girl on the nice house on the hill once again telling him ‘no,’ because she is their last best hope to finance Nutter’s Ark, the exciting junket down the interstate with a couple of mullet heads and some young chicks, maybe even a wild secretary, who ends up feeling guilty for dragging these morons into the Branagan’s life and spends 30 years hiding from them, scared to death to ever talk about what happened, because she feels complicit…
But, not before being stalked, in 1980-1981, by her bad-boy boyfriends roomate, now posing as a fake PI and harrassing all of “B”s friends to learn what she might have told them…and not before being found, “naked, catatonic, clutching a knife in a closet’ by her bewildered live-in boyfriend, who came into the picture long after Holly’s murder, before being taken to a commitment hearing, where she is committed, released after several weeks, moves to California, and isn’t heard from … for 30 years.
@ Gumby:
Good question, maybe one of the viewers has an answer to that question. They had a pretty well known pathologist working in the County back then. However, with the investigation still active I doubt he would chime in. He was probably called before the GJ as well.
The Allentown Public Library has a reading room with area yearbooks in it going back years. I wonder if the Bethlehem Library has similar?
Bethlehem public library has a ‘Bethlehem’ room where you can find old archival goodies except the 1979 Freedom yearbook. They do not have one. I was able to find who lived on the Branagans block and am trying to contact these people if they are still alive. Very interesting group of people in that area during that time. Looking foreword to see what they have to say.
Here are a couple other thoughts: Holly had a classmate in the 79 yearbook with one address, Stafore Estates, and in the 80 yearbook her brother had the address in question as an address? Also, there were 2 Main St ext! What house number are we looking at…23??? Because 23 is at the ext toward Easton. Either way, I am not sure either Main St ext were Freedom school district…
@ jim friedman: I have one, you are more than welcome to it!!!
jim friedman wrote:
Now that you mention that, as I remember, the yearbooks in the Allentown Library reading room are kind of ‘hammered’ as well. Pages ripped out… people go in there and just rip out what they want, even though there is an inexpensive Xerox machine right outside the door…
Does Freedom High itself have a ’79 yearbook?
Gumby wrote:
No. 23 West Dewberry. Near Main St. Ext., not on Main St. Ext.
Here: just click on the link.
http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LjIzK3dlc3QrZGV3YmVycnkrYXZlJTJjK2JldGhsZWhlbStQQSU3ZXNzdC4wJTdlcGcuMSZiYj01Ny42Njk2ODc5OTE1MTk5JTdlLTMwLjUxNDUxMTEwOCU3ZTE3LjY2NjM0NDY3Mjk0MiU3ZS0xMjAuNjkwMjkyMzU4
Hey, on a lighter note…when WE figure this out…would you all help me find my birth parents!!!
I have 2 classmates who remember going to a house on Dewberry…what should I be asking them??? One of our classmates live on Main St Ext…
If you need to find your birth parents, perhaps you should be using an entirely different site. This site is about cold case murders that haven’t been solved. There are some really great sites that can help you on your lighter note.
A house on Dewberry, or that house at 23 West Dewberry?
Did you try the Bing Maps link, above?
Has anyone looked at the angle that “someone” was giving Sean a message???
@ Starkrial: Trust me I have, my birth grandmother is in the way…just trying to make everyone smile:)
I do not believe that Holly’s murder and Sean’s death are related or one the result of the other.
@ Frediano: they said a bi-level across from the cemetery? Went with a Beca guy, who I knew through a Freedom guy, who wrapped his car around a telephone pole…
3 classmates have told me they used to buy drugs from…was the dealer leaving a message???
@ Gumby:
I have 2 classmates who remember going to a house on Dewberry…what should I be asking them??? One of our classmates live on Main St Ext
Maybe you can ask them who lived at 23 Dewberry Avenue….and you probably had more classmates that lived in the area of Main Street extension. Dig deep.
@ Vidocq:
That’s’ been discussed and I think you are correct. The speculation was apparent but with the situation being what it was, obviously people were going to try to link the the murder with the accident.
Right, freakish as the accident was it is too easy to assume that it was either punishment or retalliation for Holly.
@ Gumby:
Gumby says:
February 28, 2011 at 8:37 PM
3 classmates have told me they used to buy drugs from…was the dealer leaving a message???
Drugs from….???? so you have a name? Drugs from….meaning you know who but can’t say? Fair enough but you guys need to go to LE as soon as possible. Maybe the dealer was leaving a message but highly unlikely as Holly was known to smoke a little and drink a little. This was information coming from 4 of her friends that hung out with her. She liked to have fun but was not hard core. Typical 1979 high schooler from all accounts. Nothing on the dark side.
Work with me here…it would have been VERY easy for Holly to get the little bit of drugs she was known to smoke!!!
Gumby wrote:
Doesn’t sound like 23 West Dewberry. Not across from cemetary…
But might trigger a memory from someone else.
The death of Holly and her brother Sean are NOT connected whatsoever. Sean survived the explosion long enough to be interviewed by doctors, nurses, and detectives and denied any affiliation with Holly’s death. There are no criminal connections between the siblings.
As far as autopsies in 1979, tox tests and nail scrapings were done. Don’t ask me about the results, I have not seen the complete report.
The explosion that injured Sean was purely accidental. He was working with one of his best friends at the time. His friend was outside with a customer while Sean was inside cleaning. This angle was observed and by all accounts, Sean’s friend had nothing to do with setting him up to die.
The PSP fire marshalls report was extremely detailed. He found a flaw in the machine Sean used to clean the floors after he completely dissected it. This flaw would not have been manufactured by someone to be used as a ‘bomb’ by any means. The spark generated by the mechanical flaw and the gas fumes was the ‘perfect’ accident.
@ Jim Friedman:
But Jim, it is a characteristic of almost every single phase electric motor that, when it starts, it sparks. No flaw is required. It is in the nature of single phase motors.
By all accounts, this was a big explosion in that bay. Not a Dixie cup full of gasoline poured on few oil spots explosion, but a major explosion.
A significant amount of gasoline was involved.
There are two possibilities:
1] Sean accidentally used alot of gasoline in that closed bay, a mistake, pure and simple. He literally took a gallon bucket of gasoline and sloshed it onto the floor, in spite of being a Lehigh student knowledgable about cars and gasoline…
2] Sean inadvertently used alot of gasoline in that closed bay, unknown to him. As in, what I hypothesized upthread, where someone pre-loaded the high pressure spray washer hose(how long was it? how much gasoline could it have been pre-loaded with?) with gasoline. So, Sean pours a little gas on an oily spot, like from a Dixie cup, and then thinks he’s power washing it with water, but for a while, as the hose is emptied, he is actually spraying more gasoline into the bay. The gasoline would eventually be flushed out and be replaced by water, but too late, the gasoline has been introduced into the closed bay, waiting for the inevitable spark.
I thought I read, I could be wrong, that they routinely borrowed this equipment from another gas station. So, others knew of their routine. So, what would be required is, someone with knowledge of their routine, and access to the equipment.
There is absolutely no evidence that happened, and even if we knew this is what happened, it is likely that any evidence was washed out the hose by the normal action of a power washer.
So, we have to assume it was an accident, that Sean made a bonehead mistake.
But, it isn’t the only possible explanation.
by the detailed report, I can believe the investigator could have proven gasoline was in the steam genny at some point. I personally believe his friend or the person who owned the machine, did not intentionally try to kill Sean…strictly my opinion.
@ Jim Friedman:
Jim, I fully accept all that. But, because we don’t know who in total had access to the equipment and knowledge of their routine and procedures, I wonder. These were two gas stations. Not exactly like secure government facilities guarding nuclear weapons, with logfiles and security cameras and guards and a strict accounting of who has access to what.
I haven’t read or had access to the report, and never will. But, does the report explicitly say that the power washer hose was tested for gasoline residue and none was found? Or, does the report say nothing about that, and so, none was found because they didn’t look for it? Those are two different results (1] looked and didn’t find 2] didn’t look and didn’t find), and we can’t draw the same conclusions from them.
I totally agree that it is implausible that his close friends or acquaintances were involved, at least knowingly or deliberately. But, someone in the corners, a loose acquaintance with knowledge, could have pulled this off.
I’d really be interested in the ‘routine’ exchange/borrowing of that equipment. Did they go pick it up? Was it dropped off? Did someone, a driver, deliver it? Where was it before Sean used it? We don’t know. That for sure doesn’t mean anything other than ‘we don’t know.’ But, we don’t know.
I don’t recall reading about the genny being tested for gasoline residue or fumes. Did the investigators look for that? I don’t know. As far as the history of borrowing the machine goes, there is nothing I recall in the report about that either.
Maybe its me, but I cannot fathom young kids coming up with such a broad and precise scheme as this and not getting caught or at least questioned about this. Am I that gullible? Are 2 police agencies so ‘in the dark’ about this? I hope not.
@ jim friedman:
Why young kids?