John Weiss was an 18-year-old from Pittsburgh who died on February 22, 1981, after being shot during what authorities described as a break-in at the home of Dr. John Wahrenberger. Weiss was reportedly a longtime patient of the dentist.

According to testimony, Weiss and two other teenagers fled the house as Wahrenberger fired; Brian Hill, 17, testified he heard five shots and said Weiss was shot in the back about 50 feet from the residence in an empty lot or hillside behind the house. The third youth was later identified as Jeffrey Vargo, 17. Authorities treated the shooting as more than defensive and charged Wahrenberger with homicide on an allegation he had recklessly and maliciously caused Weiss’s death.

The case became an early test of Pennsylvania’s then-new deadly-force law because the statute limited when a homeowner could use deadly force against an intruder. Wahrenberger was convicted in July 1981 of voluntary manslaughter; in February 1982 the judge sentenced him to seven years probation rather than prison, citing his lack of a prior record and a mistaken understanding of the new law. Did anyone who knew John Weiss or saw activity near the dentist’s house that night come forward with information then or since?