More than two decades after a Pennsylvania woman was found stabbed to death inside her home, investigators have made an arrest in the cold case murder.
Timothy Bernard, 62, is charged in the 2001 murder of his neighbor at the time, 46-year-old Cynthia Baver, Berks County District Attorney John Adams announced on Friday.
“Despite 22 years, justice will now be sought for the death of Cynthia Baver,” Adams said. “Hopefully we can bring some closure to this family.”
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On Sunday, April 8, 2001, at 10:08 p.m., police responded to a home on the 1100 block of North 10th Street in Reading, Pennsylvania, for reports of an unconscious woman with wounds on her body.
The responding officers learned the woman, later identified as Baver, had been found at the home by concerned neighbors during a welfare check. She was pronounced dead by responding medics.
The officers entered the home and found Baver on the living room floor with a bloodstained shirt that concealed stab wounds on her torso as well as a black cord around her neck and injuries to her head. The officers also found money, a purse, and items that were likely from the purse near Baver’s body.
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Investigators also found suspected human bloodstains on items, floors and walls throughout Baver’s home as well as in a breezeway between the row home adjacent to Baver’s and the property next door to it.
Police also found a leaking waterbed and a pair of scissors near the foot of the bed inside Baver’s second floor bedroom, a dresser with the top drawer opened, a jewelry box on the floor, and shattered glass on the third floor.
Investigators collected samples of the bloodstains. They submitted those samples as well as a known DNA sample from Baver to the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Forensic Services for further analysis.
On April 9, 2001, an autopsy revealed Baver had suffered from fractures to her forehead and the back of her skull, ligature marks on her neck and stab wounds to her chest. Her death was ruled a homicide.
On Sept. 5, 2001, investigators received the DNA sample report from the Pennsylvania State Police Laboratory. The report confirmed some of the bloodstain samples collected from the crime scene didn’t belong to Baver but instead to another unidentified person.
The DNA samples of the unknown person were then searched through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a computer software program that operates local, state and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders and unsolved crime scene evidence.
The unidentified DNA profile was repeatedly checked through CODIS but a match was never found and the case went cold.
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The case was then reopened in 2021 after Baver’s father contacted Reading Police Officer Daniel Cedeno and asked if he could look into the unsolved death of his daughter.
In April of 2021, investigators reviewed the existing evidence and reports in the cold case. Then, on May 23, 2022, one of the bloodstain samples from the crime scene was taken to the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Forensic Services to determine if there was enough material available to conduct forensic genealogy testing.
On Sept. 22, 2022, investigators received a report revealing the DNA evidence produced the profile of an unidentified man.
On Jan. 18, 2023, the DNA profile was sent to BODE Technology, a forensic genealogy company based in Virginia.
On Aug. 1, 2023, BODE Technology provided the genealogy report of the DNA profile. Investigators then used the report to identify the man as 62-year-old Timothy Bernard. Investigators say Bernard lived next door to Baver at the time of her murder.
On Sept. 18, 2023, Officer Cedeno interviewed Bernard as well as his wife who had legal guardianship of her husband due to him having suffered from aneurysms, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
During the interview, Bernard admitted to living next door to Baver at the time of her murder, police said. Bernard allegedly said he had met with Baver on several occasions to buy drugs from her. Bernard also said he heard noises coming from the walls of Baver’s home on the night of her murder and knocked on her first floor window to complain about the noise, according to the affidavit.
Bernard said he then went back into his home that night and was met by an officer who told him Baver had been strangled, according to investigators. Bernard said at the time he was asked to speak with the officers but chose to leave for work instead, according to the affidavit.
After receiving consent from Bernard and his wife, investigators took a DNA sample from him and submitted it to the Pennsylvania State Police laboratory, according to the affidavit.
On Nov. 9, 2023, investigators then received confirmation that the DNA sample from Bernard matched the DNA profile obtained from the bloodstains that were found at the crime scene, officials said.
Bernard was then arrested and charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, burglary and aggravated assault. He is currently being held in the Berks County Jail without bail. His next preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15.
“I want to thank, again, the Reading Police Department for their dedication and tenacity to solve this horrific homicide,” Adams said. “This technology has brought new life to solving old cases.”
Online court records do not list attorney information for Bernard.
