A Texas man has been arrested for the 1968 murder of a Bethlehem Steel employee who was found in a northeastern Pennsylvania with multiple bullet wounds.
Alleged killer Richard Keiper told law enforcement officials that he ran from the law after reportedly shooting 40-year-old Alfred Barnes "in order to start a new life by joining a traveling carnival," the Associated Press reported. Keiper fled Pennsylvania for Texas, and is now married with one child and two stepchildren, according to state police investigator Cpl. Thomas McAndrew.
67-year-old Keiper of Boyd, Texas, was taken into police custody on Thursday, and will be sent back to Pennsylvania on grounds that he allegedly murdered Barnes, who worked as an assistant to the vice president at Bethlehem Steel. Keiper confessed to the killing when he was interrogated by a Texas Ranger in September.
Barnes' remains were found by hunters in a field located in Chestnuthill Township, Monroe County, on Oct. 19, 1968. According to police, Barnes was shot many times at close range. His 1969 Ford Thunderbird was found in Warren County, N.J., where investigators found traces of Barnes' blood, along with a .32-caliber bullet lying on the floor of the driver's side.
Keiper was first suspected when state troops were working on the case back in the 1970s.
"For some reason, the case went cold, and Keiper was never tracked down and interrogated," McAndrew told the Associated Press. "Recently, one of our troopers saw that as a loose end."
Keiper was arrested while working at a wastewater treatment plant, and is currently jailed in Wise County.
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