Pittsburgh Neighbor Charged in Killings of Jewish School Aide Susan Wolfe and Sister
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Pittsburgh police have charged a next-door neighbor in the double murder of a Jewish day school teacher’s aide and her sister. The siblings, Sarah Wolfe and Susan Wolfe, aged 36 and 44, were found slain in the basement of their home last month.
Allen Wade, 43, a convicted felon and a neighbor of the sisters, faces charges for homicide, burglary, robbery, theft, access device fraud and carrying a gun without a license, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. He was arrested around 1 p.m. as he readied to board a bus after visiting family in the area, police said.
Police found a bloodstain on a grey pair of sweatpants near Sarah Wolfe’s car that matched a DNA sample from Wade, reportedly the most significant piece of evidence found during the investigation.
The sisters’ bodies were discovered in their basement covered in laundry detergent and bleach, likely an effort to cover up evidence. Both were killed by one shot to the head.
Susan Wolfe worked as a teacher’s aide a the Hillel Academy in the upscale Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
Just an hour before the arrest, Wade posted on Facebook status proclaiming his innocence.
“I would like for the world to know I am 100 percent innocent I would never ever in any way Hurt a person so brutally it is not in my nature I have always respected women and will always continue to do so I am being framed to take the fall for this case and hopefully justice will prevail ! I appreciate all of you who pray for me and I love my family God bless I am going to turn myself in now since they act like they don’t know where I am at !!”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Wade had a history of run-ins with the law. He purchased eight handguns between 1997 and 2002. The police had reportedly confiscated four.
A number of women had filed for protection-from-abuse orders against him in the past, the paper reported. He is also currently awaiting trial for charges that he stole a woman’s wedding ring last year.
“Based on the trail of evidence, clothing and video, we were pretty sure it was him,” said Pittsburgh Police Lieutenant Kevin Kraus, Reuters reported.
The Wolfes were sisters of Mary Wolfe, a Democrat serving her second term in the Iowa House of Representatives.
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