In the early morning hours of January 8, 1989, two McDonald’s employees were killed during what investigators concluded was a robbery at the Parkway Shopping Center restaurant in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania. Charles Hegarty, 46, of East Goshen, and manager Jean Reider, 41, of Newark, Delaware, were each found with a single gunshot wound to the head. Co-workers who arrived for the morning shift reported seeing a man inside waving a gun and saw Hegarty motioning for them to leave; a newspaper carrier had noticed an unfamiliar blue and white car in the lot shortly before the bodies were discovered. The safe had been opened and the cash drawers emptied except for some rolled coins.

The investigation led to the arrest of Robert T. Hughes. Evidence at trial included Hughes buying a Colt handgun and shooting targets days earlier, surveillance of him near another McDonald’s in the predawn hours, and an inquiry call to a different restaurant about opening procedures. Hughes was found competent to stand trial, entered a plea, and was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, robbery, possession of an instrument of a crime, and a firearms violation, receiving two death sentences.

Did anyone have contact with Charles Hegarty at the West Goshen McDonald’s in the days before January 8, 1989?