Who Killed Keith Polerecki?

On the summer night of Wednesday, August 14, 1996, an unidentified man stumbled upon a gruesome discovery. The man found badly decomposed remains near the Coxton Rail Yard in Duryea.

Investigators were called in, and the site was secured.

The location was described as: About 200 yards off of Coxton Road, near the railyard. It was about 150 yards behind the water treatment plant, close to a sand and gravel pit. It was 300 feet from the Conrail Road that leads to the yard. It was under the radio transmitters.

The area was so dark and heavily wooded that it took investigators over 90 minutes to find the body after it had been reported.

It was estimated that the body had been there between three and six days before being found. Based on the advanced state of decomposition, investigators had to rely on dental records to identify the victim. They could not immediately determine the true cause of death.

Identity

The next day, they released the name and very few details. Keith John Polerecki, 31, of Pittston, died with about nine broken ribs.

Broken ribs don’t usually result in death, so investigators and the medical examiner were stumped. They theorized that the blows might have punctured an organ, but the cause of death was still under investigation. It was no surprise when the police listed the death as “suspicious.”

The family had reported Keith missing just two days before the body was found. Even though the family business where he worked was closed for vacation, it was not like Keith to just go missing.

Keith’s mother, Tina Polerecki, just knew it was murder. She said, “If this is foul play, I have an idea in my mind of who did it.”

Unfortunately, she was prescient in that she was quoted as saying, “I will do my own personal investigation if the police don’t find out who did this. He will not have died in vain, I promise you that.”

Duryea Police, with a minimal staff, was in charge of the investigation.

Keith Polerecki

Keith was born and raised in Pittston. He was the son of Daniel and Tina Gagliardi Polerecki.

He graduated from Pittston Area High School and attended Penn State’s Scranton Campus. He was a carpenter by trade, but also worked at the family’s dry cleaning business.

Keith was involved in several organizations. His obituary listed the Luzerne County Traveling Dart Club, the Italian Education Circle, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, and the Father and Sons Rod and Gun Club of Dutch Mountain.

He left behind his young son, Keith Jr, his parents, older brother Daniel Jr, and younger brother Brandon.

Keith’s Youth

Keith was smart. He earned Honors for several semesters during his Junior High years at Pittston Area Jr High School.

During the mid-1970s, he and his brother Daniel Jr were altar servers for St. Rocco’s Church.

Keith was also an athlete. In 1975, he was playing for Bubby’s Lounge in Farm League Baseball. He made the papers as a game-winning pitcher and was called out for his hitting.

He also played football. In 1976, 1977, and 1978, he was playing for the Pittston Panthers.

He also played basketball for Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Keith would go on to graduate from Pittston Area High School in 1982. His future plans said he planned to attend the University of Scranton. All was looking promising.

Post High School

After High School, Keith began a downward spiral in a battle with alcohol. He would be arrested multiple times and sentenced to either light jail sentences with probation. Most of his arrests all seemed to involve alcohol.

While it was clear that Keith struggled with drinking, it was reported at one time that the police did not view him as a problem.

Beating

In one particular instance, Keith was badly beaten after what looked like a night of drinking. On February 23, 1989, police were called to a disturbance on Spring Street in Pittston at 1:34 am. They found Keith in the street, seriously injured. He was transported to the hospital via ambulance, where he was treated and released.

The investigation led to the arrest of three men from Pittston. All three were charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, disorderly conduct, and criminal conspiracy to commit simple assault.

Later, another Pittston man turned himself in in connection with the beating.

Keith told investigators that he saw the four men exit the Bottoms Up bar at 7 Spring Street. He claimed the four were going to attack an older man who had just left the bar. He said he started a fight with the men to distract them from attacking the older man.

The man said he saw the men leaving the bar, but testified that the men didn’t say or do anything to him. He added that Keith walked him to his car and encouraged him to leave before he started arguing with the quartet.

Keith then started to argue with one of the men. It escalated into a fight between the two men. Keith was eventually thrown to the ground, and he claimed the other men started punching and kicking him. He was eventually knocked unconscious. He suffered eye and back injuries along with a broken nose.

The initial report said that one of the men struck Keith in self-defense when Polerecki attacked him. However, the best I can determine is that the man was ordered to attend the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program. Another man was ordered to pay the court costs, and his charges were dismissed. The charges against the third man were dropped.

It was reported that there had been several attacks in the area by unknown assailants. The Scranton Times reported that Keith was one of the few alleged victims to report it. And he is the only one who was able to identify his attackers. It’s not clear if the attacks are related.

Death Investigation

This wasn’t the first time a body was found next to the Coxton Yards. In April 1991, Mary Loretta Cooke Manns was found strangled to death in the same area. Manns had been divorced for 11 years and had recently broken up with her boyfriend, but neither man was implicated. The case remains unsolved to this day.

Now, just over five years after Mann’s death, the tiny town of Duryea (pop ~5,000), led by Police Chief Leonard Ash, has its second murder on its hands. The department employs only three full-time officers. Ash stated that his two patrolmen, Todd Gruzinski and Michael Lohman, were leading the investigation. They were being aided by a Luzerne County DA’s office Detective Lt. Gary Sworen. Sworen was a former Duryea police chief.

The Pennsylvania State Police were also assisting in the investigation, but only in support of Duryea.

The autopsy didn’t reveal much. Coroner George Hudock said the broken ribs may have punctured a vital organ, but because of the advanced state of decomposition, it was impossible to inspect the organs. He would not speculate on what caused the broken ribs, suggesting it could have been from a weapon or from a bad fall. He left the determination of murder up to the police.

Days later, officials are reiterating how difficult this case is. The lack of eye-witnesses and the state of the body are complicating the investigation. Still, over 20 individuals had been interviewed as investigators try to reconstruct Keith’s final hours.

Keith’s father, Dan Polerecki, said that he had a feeling something was wrong when his son didn’t call him to let him know he wouldn’t be coming home on August 7. Keith was last seen at 4pm on that day.

Dan said Keith had recently finished rehabilitation for his drinking and was very much looking forward to turning his life around. His turning point was when he lost custody of his son. He knew he needed to change his ways.

The Luzerne County law enforcement teams would be challenged with additional deaths during the same timeframe. On August 10, Deborah Gorski, the 38-year-old wife of a doctor, mysteriously died at home, and the police weren’t notified until 24 hours later. Keith was found on August 15. Two days later, on August 19, parts of a decomposed body showed up in a water treatment plant. It was later identified as Edward Williams of Plymouth. On September 5, 22-year-old Colleen Kelly died in a mysterious car crash. The woman was allegedly in an extramarital relationship with the Laflin Assistant Police Chief, Charles McKeown. And finally, on September 8, police found the body of a man in an abandoned strip mine. He had been shot six times and beaten. Clearly, with five active investigations, the county resources were stretched thin.

No Progress

Days, weeks, and months pass with no new leads in the Polerecki case. The family placed this memorial to Keith on his first birthday, away from this earth.

A Pattern of Unsolved Murders

It seems that Duryea wasn’t the only town struggling to close cases. In a 1997 article in the Citizen’s Voice, Staff Writer Tim Gulla called out more than 20 people who died or were murdered under suspicious circumstances in the county. All of these deaths have not been explained, nor have their killers been brought to justice. Was there a problem with local resources?

State Police Take Over

Finally, in April 1997, after months without an arrest, Duryea Chief Ash asked the Pennsylvania State Police to take over the investigation. With the handover, more details are released to the public.

Still, PSP said they had little to go on. They said they didn’t believe that the death was intentional. They theorized that it was a warning that had gone terribly wrong. They believed that two or three men assaulted Keith on the night of his death.

They determined that he was last seen on the Black Bridge off Route 502 in Moosic with an acquaintance. He was known to hang out at the Spring Brook swimming hole.

Drug Related?

Investigators say they have interviewed “street-level drug dealers” with whom Keith was known to associate. They compared him to another case from 1986. Edward “Ned” Tracy was also from Pittston. Tracy was known as a “mule” for the traffickers. He was eventually murdered in Ransom Township because of his drug debts. While investigators said Keith’s case was similar, they believed it was on a much smaller scale.

Keith’s family firmly denied that Keith was involved in drugs. They knew of his challenges with alcohol, but claimed he was not involved with drugs.

Fresh Look

With PSP in charge, new theories and ideas were brought to the case. In July 1997, investigators exhumed Keith’s body. They said additional testing was needed based on new evidence that was uncovered.

Investigators initially were hesitant to release any information, but it was later learned that they needed new samples for forensic investigators for comparison purposes. They said they have a target suspect or suspects “who knew the victim and may have been with the victim shortly before his death.” They found blood in that person’s house and car.

They believed that Keith had been beaten elsewhere and his body dumped at the Coxton Road location. Finding Keith’s blood in the suspect’s car could tie them to the murder.

Ruled Homicide

Finally, after over a year, the Pennsylvania State Police ruled Keith’s death a homicide. Tina was right all along. But the ruling just meant more questions.

A Break?

Flashing back to September 16, 1996, about a month after Keith’s death, State Police in Dunmore found a damaged vehicle near Horseshoe Valley Road off of Route 502 in Spring Brook Township. When they ran the registration, they determined that the car had been reported stolen the day before.

A woman reportedly told police that the 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass belonged to her brother. She said she was using the car while her brother was in jail for a parole violation.

When the vehicle was recovered, police noticed that there were blood stains and other incriminating evidence that might be related to a crime, including a metal pipe. They also noted that there was a half-burned sock stuffed into the gas tank – likely an attempt to destroy any evidence. The State Police removed any potential evidence before returning the car to the owner.

Months later, one of the women gave birth to a son in late March 1997. The father was the owner of the car.

On April 8, 1997, police interviewed another woman in connection with the stolen vehicle. She told police that a woman called her and asked her to help her burn the car because it might contain evidence from a homicide.

The woman added that she and the two other women drove the car to Horseshoe Valley Road in Spring Brook Township. There, they kicked out the lights, smashed the windshield, and caused further damage to make it appear as if it were a stolen and abandoned car. One of the women admitted that she took off her sock, stuffed it into the gas tank, and tried to light it on fire.

Another man was interviewed. He told police that the one woman told him, “We have to burn the car because there is stuff in there that could incriminate (her boyfriend).” She also allegedly said there was a pipe in the car that could be used as evidence.

The woman who reported the car stolen told police that her brother’s girlfriend allegedly told her that, “If the body of Keith Polerecki was in (her boyfriend’s) car, there would be blood in the car.” She also said that the woman believed that if they burned the car, the evidence would be destroyed.

It seems that after this information was revealed, Duryea Police turned the investigation over to the State Police.

Finally, on September 2, 1998, the news hit the papers. State Police charged the three women with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, criminal conspiracy, and criminal mischief. The woman who reported the stolen vehicle was also charged with making false reports to law enforcement.

The girlfriend looks to have pleaded guilty to Criminal Mischief in November 1999. The woman who reported the car as stolen was sentenced to ARD for filing a false report, and the other woman pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence.

What wasn’t clear was the whereabouts of the man who owned the car during the time of the murder. Was he truly incarcerated? If so, why was his girlfriend so worried about the car? Was someone else associated with her using the car at that time?

Tina Polerecki told police that she did not know any of the people in that investigation.

Reward Offered

Surprisingly, no other arrests came from the “stolen car” incident. More time would pass, and the family grew more frustrated. They blamed Duryea Police for waiting so long to engage the Pennsylvania State Police.

Almost four years after his death, in April 2000, the family introduced a $10,000 reward for the person who would lead to the arrest and conviction of the murderer.

The family has also suffered emotionally since the murder. Keith’s parents divorced, and their cleaning business was lost due to arson. The best I can determine is that no one was ever held responsible for the fire.

Adding to the complexity, it was reported that people who had been involved with the case have since passed away. No further details were available on who they might be.

In 2012, More than a decade after the reward was introduced, and sixteen years after the murder, the family is still waiting. Hoping.

State Troopers Stephen Polishan and Christopher King are still working the case. They said they know people are out there with more information than what has been shared.

Trooper King said, “There has been a set of people who have been persons of interest – they were either there or know something.” He added, “We feel there may be some people out there who know something. Maybe these people are older and have a family of their own now, and will come forward and realize that this person was a human being – he has a son, now a granddaughter.”

Still Unsolved

We’re now approaching the 30th anniversary of his death. The most recent press came in February 2025. That’s when the Citizen’s Voice featured an article on the unsolved case. Law enforcement was now offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Keith’s killer.

Do you know anything about this case? If so, you can remain anonymous and may be eligible for the reward. Call State Police in Wilkes-Barre at 570-697-2000 or PSP Tips at 1-800-4PA-TIPS. The family deserves answers and closure.