Marlene Sue Newcomer was 26 when she was killed after leaving a New Year’s Eve party in Vandergrift and driving home on January 2, 1980. She picked up two men hitchhiking on Route 66 near Mamont, identified as John Lesko and Michael Travaglia, who handcuffed her, took her car and drove her to Indiana County. The men committed a convenience store robbery there, then shot Newcomer and left her body in her car at a Pittsburgh parking garage.

Lesko and Travaglia were arrested on January 3, 1980, as part of a wider crime spree labeled the Kill for Thrill murders. They were charged with homicide and criminal conspiracy in the deaths of Newcomer, Peter Levato and William Nicholls, and with the murder of Apollo police officer Leonard Miller. A Westmoreland County jury later sentenced both men to death in February 1981.

Does anyone have memories of the Vandergrift or Route 66 Mamont area around that New Year’s weekend in 1980 or information that could add detail to Newcomer’s final hours?