Barbara Blatnik was last seen Dec. 19, 1987. More than three decades later, an arrest was made in connection with her death.
James E. Zastawnik, 67, of Cleveland, has been charged with murder in the death of Barbara Blatnik, whose body was found in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Donna Zanath, Blatnik’s sister, said Wednesday evening that she was in shock that an arrest had been made after all this time. She credited Project Porchlight, a local effort lead by Akron author James Renner that took on her sister’s case as its first attempt to generate renewed interest in a cold case. Project Porchlight raised $6,000 for DNA testing that helped with the Blatnik case.Blatnik was last seen Dec. 19, 1987, when a friend dropped her off in Garfield Heights around midnight.
DNA samples taken from Blatnik’s body were provided to Identifinders, a California company that does forensic genealogy using DNA databases. This led detectives to Zastawnik’s family and then to him as a suspect, Renner said.
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