Harrisburg, PA – Members of the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) Troop D Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit recently cleared four state police homicide investigations by securing confessions from a convicted killer. The accused, Edward A. Surratt, is currently serving two life sentences for crimes he committed in Florida and has also been convicted of murder in South Carolina.
In March, PSP investigators traveled to the Raiford Correctional Facility in Raiford, Florida to personally interview Surratt. Surratt implicated himself in four unsolved PSP homicide investigations involving the deaths of six people. The homicides took place in 1977 and 1978.
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DATE
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TROOP/STATION
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VICTIM(S)
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11/19/1977
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D – Beaver
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William and Nancy Adams
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12/31/1977
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G – McConnellsburg
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Guy and Laura Mills
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12/31/1977
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G – Bedford
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Joel Krueger
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01/07/1978
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D – Beaver
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John Shelkons
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District attorneys in each county agreed not to prosecute Surratt for the cold-case homicides due to his life sentences in other jurisdictions.
“PSP investigators never stopped seeking justice for the victims of these terrible crimes and their families,” said Lieutenant Colonel Scott Price, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police. “We hope that the confessions announced today will help bring some semblance of closure to the victims’ loved ones.”
PSP investigators began communicating with Surratt from his prison cell in Florida about unsolved homicides in Pennsylvania in 2018. Surratt provided information on the cases listed above.