Elaine Marie Goldberg was a 21-year-old nursing student whose partially clothed body was found November 3, 2010, in a vacant lot on the 2800 block of Ruth Street in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. The medical examiner determined she had been strangled, with ligature marks around her neck; the autopsy also showed blunt-force trauma and antemortem and postmortem sexual assault. Investigators reported her body had been posed in a sexually suggestive position, suggesting a necrophilic element to the crime.

DNA was collected at the scene but initially produced no matches. A pattern emerged when two other women—Nicole Piancentini, found November 13, 2010, and Casey Mahoney, found December 15, 2010—were discovered nearby in similar circumstances; all three victims had been raped, strangled, and posed. A DNA sample taken from Antonio Rodriguez in January 2011 matched evidence from Goldberg’s case; he was arrested January 16/17, 2011, confessed to the attacks, and was charged in the three killings. Rodriguez was later tried, convicted on all counts, and sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole on August 16, 2012.

Anyone who knew Elaine or has information about her final movements in Kensington is asked to come forward.