Death In Philadelphia: The Murder Of Kimberly Ernest

When the body of a young female jogger was found at the bottom of a stairwell near Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square in the early morning hours of November 2, 1995, the brutality of the crime shocked the city and led to an outpouring of grief that caused the mayor to weep publicly.

The victim, who came from a prominent Illinois family, had been attacked by two petty car thieves with a history of terrorizing local residents. Yet nothing in this case was what it seemed to be. The suspects claimed that their signed confessions were forced by police officers in a hurry to prosecute.

DNA evidence not compatible with the killers’ profiles led the sequestered jury (in a rush to go home) to declare a not guilty verdict. When a rogue attorney eager for publicity entered the picture and presented “evidence” that the killer of the jogger was really the son of a prominent city lawyer, the new charges led to a complex web of criminal types from the city’s drug and prostitution underworld.

The Center City jogger’s death still cries out for justice.