Target 11: Who killed Catherine Corkery?

DORMONT, Pa. — It’s a crime so chilling and brutal that many of the victim’s closest friends are still too frightened to talk about it more than three decades later.

Catherine Corkery, a 22-year-old woman from Dormont, was brutally beaten to death and then set on fire.

Wednesday marks 34 years since the savage crime, and still, no one has been charged.

Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle sat down with a retired police sergeant who worked the case from the beginning and a friend who agreed to talk only if we concealed her identity.

Earle: A lot of people are still scared to talk about this?

Friend: A lot of people are scared. Most people are scared to talk about it because the killer is still out there.

One of Corkery’s closest friends agreed to talk to us as long we didn’t show her face and altered her voice.

She said she is still scared to discuss the case.

“The fear is very strong and that’s why it has to be settled. This absolutely has to be solved. People are still scared out there. People want this solved, and it’s got to be done for Cathy because she was worth it,” said her close friend.

Earle also returned to the scene of the crime with retired police Sgt. Gary Scheimer, who worked the case from day one.

“This is the only case that still bothers me after all these years. This is Voelkel [avenue] and she was found in the rear of 2933 Voelkel. Not much has changed, not much has changed,” said Scheimer.

Corkery’s charred body was found under a tree near the light rail tracks in the early morning hours of July 22, 1989.

Scheimer: Stabbed and cut. Then set her body down and poured gasoline and lit it on fire.

Earle: A brutal crime?

Scheimer: Extremely brutal.

Corkery had been stabbed, beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted. Her body had been set on fire.

She wasn’t discovered until daylight.

“Nobody saw the fire, and the fire raged high enough that it singed the leaves on a branch that were approximately 12 feet above the ground. So, it was a big fire,” said Scheimer.

All of her clothes were gone.

Earle: Did you ever find them?

Scheimer: No, her clothes were never found.

Investigators also checked local gas stations for recent purchases, but came up empty.

“I think it was well planned, thought out. It wasn’t a spur of the moment type of action,” said Scheimer.

“I don’t think anyone believes it was random. She knew who this person was and it was very personal,” said her close friend.

Corkery had just taken a job downtown and moved into a house in Dormont with her boyfriend, who planned to propose to her.

“She was the sweetest. She was friends with everybody. What could have possibly happened to this girl? There was no one that would have wanted to intentionally hurt her that we knew of,” said her friend.

Corkery and her boyfriend were at a party at her friend’s home in Mount Lebanon that Friday night.

Her boyfriend left early because he had to work the next morning, and Corkery stayed.

Friends believe she left about 2 a.m., but it’s still unclear if she left by herself or with someone else.

Earle: Do you know if she got a ride from that party of if she walked or left alone?

Scheimer: We don’t know. Nobody can account for her whereabouts or can recall seeing her until she’s found in this backyard.

Police cleared her boyfriend and others at the party that night.

Over the years, investigators say they’ve made some progress.

Scheimer: There were several promising leads, just not enough to affect an arrest and come up with that conclusive evidence.

Earle: Do you have any theories?

Scheimer: I do, but I can’t share them.

And Corkery’s friends haven’t given up hope that someday, the case that has haunted them for more than three decades will be solved.

“We are all extremely happy that you are doing this story and keeping it alive because she deserves better she deserves to have this resolved,” said the friend.

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