For several weeks in early 2014, a double murder in East Liberty had the community on edge as neighbors, friends and co-workers wondered and worried about who would kill Susan and Sarah Wolfe in their home.

A web of surveillance cameras around the nearby East Liberty business district and DNA analysis by the Allegheny County crime lab and an Oakland-based contractor eventually pointed police to the sisters' neighbor, Allen Wade, who was charged with homicide and is slated to begin his trial Monday before Court of Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski.

“There certainly will be a lot of circumstantial evidence introduced, and you can convict someone on circumstantial evidence, but I believe the evidence that will be most persuasive or foremost in the jurors' minds will be that DNA,” said John Burkoff, a criminal law professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

He noted that Borkowski is a good judge to hear the case, given his history as a prosecutor and his meticulous nature.

Wade, 45, faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder. Borkowski imposed a gag order April 19 prohibiting attorneys or witnesses from discussing the case with the public or media.

A nervous neighborhood

Unnerving details about the crime scene trickled out after a friend discovered the sisters' bodies Feb. 7: Susan, 44, a teacher's aide at the Hillel Academy in Squirrel Hill, appeared to have been beaten, shot once in the head, then stripped and doused in bleach and laundry detergent in the basement of the Chislett Street home. Sarah, 38, a psychiatrist at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, was also shot once in the head. She was found at the top of the stairs with her coat half off, a blanket covering her face and spattered with more detergent.

There were no signs of forced entry, police said. Robbery was the suspected motive because both women's bank cards, IDs and cellphones were missing. Allegheny County property records show Sarah Wolfe purchased the house in December 2013; it was foreclosed on by the bank in December 2014 after her death and sat vacant until it was finally sold last month.

Neighbors at the time spoke of how the street was usually quiet, but said the crime made them nervous. One even said she'd taken to sleeping on her couch with her car keys in hand.

Suspect movements

Police found Sarah Wolfe's car abandoned on South Whitfield Street early on Feb. 8, then quickly worked outward from there to review footage from more than a dozen security cameras around the business district. Those cameras captured a man in a red, hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants and bright white shoes walking around the area and withdrawing $600 from the Wolfe sisters' bank accounts at a Citizens Bank ATM between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m.

The man kept his face and hands covered but was seen at one point discarding the sweatpants, which police later recovered, behind a muffler shop off North Whitfield Street.

At 1:08 a.m., cameras at the Sunoco station on East Liberty Boulevard recorded a man, later identified as Wade, walking up with his face uncovered and buying cigarettes. His clothes were different from the earlier footage, but he wore bright white shoes.

Police questioned Wade for hours on Feb. 19. They announced on Feb. 20 that he was a “person of interest” but let him go.

Shortly after the Allegheny County crime lab matched DNA from the sweatpants to Wade, police issued a warrant for his arrest for murder, and he was picked up at a bus stop in Rankin on March 5. He has maintained his innocence.

DNA and delays

The crime lab also analyzed a sock found near Sarah Wolfe's car, material under Susan Wolfe's fingernails and a knit cap found in the sisters' house after an unsolved burglary a month or so before they were killed, but couldn't reach conclusions about DNA on any of them. North Oakland-based Cybergenetics parsed the crime lab's data with its “TrueAllele” program and concluded DNA on the hat and under Wolfe's fingernails was very likely Wade's, while one of the sisters' DNA was on the sock.

Defense attorneys Lisa Middleman, Lisa Phillips and Aaron Sontz argued for months with Deputy District Attorney Rob Schupansky and Assistant District Attorney Bill Petulla over evidence in the case and what would be admitted at Wade's trial.

“This is not a case, after all, in which there were eyewitnesses to the crime, or in which the accused confessed to having committed it,” the defense attorneys wrote in a motion seeking greater access to the TrueAllele program. “The only direct evidence that the Commonwealth will present against Mr. Wade that directly connects him to the crime scene will be the testimony of TrueAllele, as presented by Dr. (Mark) Perlin.”

Borkowski ultimately allowed the DNA evidence and denied the defense the “source code” for TrueAllele.

Schedule conflicts, arguments, appeals and expert witnesses' analysis delayed the trial's start for nearly 20 months.

Testimony is expected to begin Monday morning and last about three weeks. There were almost 170 potential witnesses on the list given to potential jurors during the three-week selection process, though not all the witnesses are likely to be called.

If the jurors convict Wade of first-degree murder, they will have to hear additional testimony about why Wade should or should not receive the death penalty, then return a separate verdict on whether the penalty should be death or life in prison without parole.

Matthew Santoni is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-391-0927 or msantoni@tribweb.com.

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