Cold Case Montco Killing Revisited Nearly 30 Years Later

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — It has been almost three decades since an 18-year-old woman was found dead at a local train station, and authorities are continuing their search for leads in this 29-year-old cold case.

Julie Barnyock was an 18-year-old high school graduate from New Britain Township, Bucks County.

She was working in Philadelphia after graduating and was supposed to have been picked up by her father at the Lansdale train station in Montgomery County on the night of Nov. 8, 1993, but when he arrived his daughter was nowhere to be found.

Barnyock's body was found three weeks later by a SEPTA worker at the train station. She had been killed and the cause of death was determined to be blunt force head trauma.

To this day, Barnyock's family does not know their daughter's killer, and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office continues to offer a $10,000 reward leading to the capture of the person responsible for the teen's death.

The case got some attention this week when NBC News reported on the ongoing cold case, highlighting how Montgomery County prosecutors refuse to give up the search for the woman's killer.

Montgomery County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Kate Delano told NBC News that the investigation was difficult in the early days since much physical evidence had been washed away since Barnyock's body was out in the elements for three weeks.

And while DNA technology wasn't what it is today back in the early 1990s, investigators are utilizing modern-day DNA techniques in order to follow up on some leads in the case, Delano told the news broadcast.

Barnyock was a graduate of Central Bucks West High School in neighboring Bucks County.

Authorities continue to ask anyone with information about the case to contact the Lansdale Police Department at 215-368-1801 or the Montgomery County Detective Bureau at 610-278-3368.