An eastern Iowa lawmaker whose sisters were murdered in Pennsylvania last month today thanked her colleagues in the Iowa House for their support of her family during this tragedy. Representative Mary Wolfe of Clinton spoke from her desk on the House floor late this afternoon.
“Everyone here, every single person, has been so kind and supportive and I wanted to let you know because I feel like in a lot of ways you’ve treated me like a member of your family and you’ve made me feel safe here, so I wanted to let you know that the Pennsylvania police did arrest the person that they believe is the person who killed my two sisters and they feel they have DNA evidence,” Wolfe said. “They feel it is a solid case.”
Court records show surveillance video and DNA evidence led police to charge a neighbor with killing 44-year-old Susan Wolfe and 38-year-old Sarah Wolfe in the home they shared in a Pittsburg suburb.
“While there’s still a long way to go and, obviously, no one believes more in ‘innocent until proven guilty’ more than I do, but this is one step to moving on,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe, who is an attorney, works at her family’s law firm in Clinton. Wolfe’s parents live in Clinton. The bodies of her sisters were found in the basement of the home they shared on February 7th. Wolfe issued a written statement earlier today, thanking the Pittsburg law enforcement community for their “hard work and dedication” to her sisters’ case. A few hours later she spoke briefly to her colleagues in the House.
“Thank you so very much for all the consideration and kindness and all the prayers,” Wolfe said. “And I will never forget it and I’ve always been proud to be a member of this House, but never more proud than during the past several weeks.”
Representative Wolfe’s sister, Susan, had recently moved to the Pittsburg suburb of East Liberty and was working as a teacher’s aide at a school nearby. Her older sister, Sarah Wolfe, moved to the Pittsburg area several years ago after she finished medical school. She was a licensed pediatrician and psychiatrist, as well as an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburg.
AUDIO of Rep. Wolfe’s remarks, 1:17