DNA identifies bones found in furnace
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Spokane
Spokesman-Review newspaper:
August 6, 1999
DNA identifies bones found in furnace
Police say apartment manager should be charged in slaying
Adam Lynn - The Spokesman-Review
Spokane _ Detectives are seeking a murder warrant against the former
manager of
an apartment building where human bones were found incinerated in a
basement
furnace this spring, Spokane police said Thursday.
Investigators believe Stanley Pietrzak, 45, killed Kelly Conway then
stuffed
her body into the furnace and burned it.
Tenants of the Helen Apartments discovered the bones in April after they
said
Pietrzak bragged of killing the woman and torching her remains.
Pietrzak managed the low-income building at 123 S. Adams from November
1997 to
October 1998 and lived there until April, when he was sentenced to jail
on an
unrelated sex crime.
Conway, 24, lived at the Helen off and on and was seen with Pietrzak in
January, tenants said. Police listed her as missing in November.
The identity of the badly burned body remained undetermined until
recently,
however.
Police Capt. Steve Braun said Thursday that investigators used DNA
testing to
identify the remains as those of Conway.
Technicians at the Washington State Crime Laboratory matched DNA taken
from
hair found in the furnace to a sample of Conway's DNA obtained during a
medical
procedure before she disappeared, Braun said.
"The DNA evidence is a very important link in this case," he said.
The identification of the body along with Pietrzak's statements to other
tenants about killing Conway were enough for detectives to seek the
warrant,
Braun said.
Pietrzak also had boasted of converting a walk-in freezer in the Helen
basement
into a torture room, residents said.
The lead detective on the case, Chet Gilmore, forwarded his files to the
prosecuting attorney's office Thursday. Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll
said he
would review the case and probably decide early next week what charges,
if any,
Pietrzak should face.
Braun said Pietrzak also is a "person of interest in a couple of other
things
we're looking at," but he declined to elaborate. Authorities do not
think he is
the serial killer responsible for 10 deaths in Spokane and Tacoma over
the past
few years.
Pietrzak is scheduled to remain in jail until Oct. 16 on his conviction
for
communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.
He was sentenced to jail in April after pleading guilty to having sex
with a
16-year-old girl in his apartment and taking pictures of her while she
was
naked.
Pietrzak was branded a sexual deviant in 1990 after being convicted of
systematically molesting two girls, ages 9 and 5. Facing 51 months in
prison,
he instead served 71 days in jail and attended psychological treatment
after a
judge decided he deserved leniency as a first-time offender.
Police issued a public warning about him last November, saying he
"presents a
danger to women and girls."
Pietrzak is a former Air Force mechanic who was stationed at Fairchild
Air
Force Base in the late 1970s, said his ex-wife, Barbara Pietrzak, who
now lives
in the Midwest with the couple's five children.
The Air Force discharged him in 1981 -- "they claimed he was overweight"
-- and
the family bumped between Oregon, Ohio and Washington before settling in
Spokane in 1988, Barbara Pietrzak said.
Pietrzak took a job working as an automobile mechanic, but was soon
fired.
When he was arrested in 1989 on suspicion of child rape, Barbara
Pietrzak left
him. She later divorced him and has custody of their children.
Pietrzak stayed in Spokane, doing odd jobs and managing at least one
other
downtown apartment building.
In 1993, he was questioned in the disappearance of a woman who lived
with him
briefly.
Detectives interviewed Pietrzak about Michelle Wright, 24, but he was
never
charged with a crime in her disappearance.
***
Stanley Pietrzak, 45
Suspect in murder of Kelly Conway, 24
Curently in jail for having sex with 16-year-old girl.
Convicted in 1990 of molesting two girls, ages 9 and 5.
Questioned in 1993 disappearance of Michelle Wright, 24.
----------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 8/5/99 online edition of The
KHQ-TV,
local Spokane, Washington NBC-TV affiliate station web site:
Murder charge expected in case of bones found in apartment furnace
By Sean Owsley
SPOKANE, August 5 - Spokane detectives will seek a murder warrant
against a man
suspected of killing a young woman in a downtown apartment building and
burning
her body in the basement furnace.
The victim is 23 year old Kelly Conway. Evidence including Conway’s
hair
were found near and in the furnace at the Helen Apartments at 123 South
Adams.
Those determinations were made by D.N.A. comparisons at the Washington
State
Crime Laboratory. Conway was an occasional resident there. She knew the
building’s manager, 45 year old Stanley Pietrzak.
Conway vanished in early November of 1998, and detectives began
investigating the circumstances of the case. Pieces of human bone were
found in
an abandoned furnace in the basement, after a Major Crimes detective
obtained a
search warrant for the building. Detectives talked with residents,
former
residents and other witnesses in the case. Some said Pietrzak bragged
about
killing a woman and burning her body in the furnace.
In an unrelated case, Pietrzak was arrested, tried and convicted of
communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. He is currently in jail
serving a 12 month sentence on that conviction.
Authorities will seek a murder charge against Pietrzak for the
murder of
Kelly Conway.