40 years later, there are still no answers to the unsolved Easton murder

Cheryl Van Horn's daughter has been telling her mother's story for decades.

It hasn't gotten any easier.

Jessica Van Horn Washington was only 6 years old when her mother was murdered. Her grandmother raised her. The family found it difficult to talk about what happened.

When she became a teenager, Washington found newspaper clippings detailing the crime. Cheryl Van Horn was shot in the chest with a shotgun on November 14, 1984. Her body was left in the trash behind the former Sheraton Hotel in downtown Easton. Confluence development is now planned there.

Washington has struggled with pain, denial, sadness and anger throughout her life. And she still has no answers.

“You don’t know how many times I’ve told your story,” Washington said.

Her mother's lifestyle, drug addiction and prostitution contributed to her death. Washington has made it her life's mission to use her mother's mistakes as an opportunity to teach others to avoid them.

“I want people to know what she went through. I want her death to have meaning. I want it to have a purpose,” Washington said.

And she is motivated to tell the story again and again in the hopes of one day finding out who killed her mother.

“It's a 40-year-old case, but if no one keeps it alive, it will stay swept under the rug,” Alice told Xander. Xander's brother was the father of Cheryl Van Horn's sons.

According to Easton Police Chief Carl Scalzo, the case has been reopened multiple times. Details were presented to a grand jury in 2012. Police took a close look at the case about six years ago, Scalzo said. Witnesses were asked. Scalzo said DNA testing that wasn't available in the 1980s has been tried. A cigarette butt found between Van Horn's fingers as she died yielded no clues, Washington said.

The case remains unsolved.

“It’s an unfortunate and sad case,” Scalzo said. “I feel for the family. Obviously, the fact that we can't move forward doesn't mean we don't want to move forward. It’s just that there’s nothing more we can do at this point.”

Georganne Simpson remembers her mother, Deborah Dutter, investigating the murder herself. Cheryl Van Horn was Dutter's sister. Dutter has compiled a file full of interviews and forensic observations. She told Easton police investigators during the final investigation.

Simpson remembers how disheartened her mother was after meeting with the officer leading the investigation at the Williams Family Restaurant. No charges would be filed. Dejected, she handed her file to her daughter.

“She said 'Here.' “You can have this,” Sampson said. “My mother gave up at that point.”

Dutter died last year. When Washington came from North Carolina to visit a local family at Easter this year, Sampson gave the file to her mother.

Together, Sampson and Washington took the file to the Northampton County District Attorney's Office and the Easton Police Department. Washington later spoke on the phone with an Easton police detective. He has listened to her, but she is pessimistic that the conversation will lead to nothing. She's frustrated, but she won't give up.

She said it was hard for others to understand why she didn't stop.

“If someone tells me, 'I know who you feel,' you'll never know how I feel. “Never,” said Washington.

Like her mother, Washington struggled with drugs. She spent time in prison. She made bad decisions.

But she endured it. She went to college. She has a master's degree in adult education. She works as the head of the customer complaint department of a large computer company. She has five children. She has a life and she has hope.

Now that she's an adult, Washington understands how difficult it must have been for her late grandparents to move on after Cheryl Van Horn's death and why they found it difficult to share secrets with her.

Her mother fell into addiction, but she loved her children so much that she knew they were not safe with her. She made sure they lived with the family. She saw them every day and refrained from using drugs around them. After her death, police found wrapped Christmas presents for the children in Van Horn's apartment.

“She was a loving person despite her flaws,” Sampson said.

Washington put her mother's demons to rest long ago. During the Easter visit, she and her brother David went to their mother's grave. She needed some time with her mother.

Van Horn made bad decisions. Her death was tragic. But she deserves to be remembered, she deserves justice, and preserving her memory continues to motivate Washington.

When Washington meets someone struggling with drugs, she pulls out the old news articles about her mother. Overcoming her own drug addiction and coming to terms with her mother's death have made Washington a stronger and wiser resource for others who need help.

“I used to be ashamed of (my past), but I don’t anymore because it’s a part of me,” Washington said.

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Rudy Miller can be reached at [email protected].