Buchanan, Randy: 2001

Randy Buchanan, a 42-year-old deaf man, was beaten to death in his apartment on June 21, 2001.   He was a Penn State football fan, and a handyman and had numerous friends and a caring family.  His father owned a small gun store in the Juniata section of Altoona, and Mr. Buchanan lived in an apartment behind it.  He was not perfect, as was shown by two separate petitions for Protection-from-abuse orders filed against him.
His girlfriend found his body in his apartment, 14 hours after he was last seen alive at Shaw’s, a local bar three blocks away.   The county coroner, Patricia Ross, fixed the time of death at about 3:00 am; about 45 minutes after leaving the bar.  Randy was face down in his living room, dead from at least two blows above the waist.  No one has ever been arrested for this brutal crime.
Randy’s mother, Marie Buchanan, died of a heart attack 10 days after the murder of her son.  He had been her youngest child, and the two had been very close.
The case remains unsolved, despite the District Attorney, David Gorman, announcing within 14 days that there were suspects.  The suspects were never named.  Altoona Police Chief Janice Freehling did not report having a suspect, but she did say that the police were looking more closely at some individuals than others.  The autopsy report has never been made public, despite the Altoona Mirror’s lawsuit to make it so.  The newspaper went to the State Supreme Court, which ruled in 2003 that the coroner did not have to release the autopsy report.  These records are to be filed once a year in the county courthouse.  The decision is noted verbatim below:

IN RE BUCHANAN, 2003 PA Super 114
No. 526 WDA 2002.
Filed: March 24, 2003. Petition for Reargument Filed April 7, 2003. Petition for Reargument Denied June 4, 2003.

1 The Commonwealth appeals from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Blair County denying its request to seal the autopsy report of Randall P. Buchanan from the general public and from the Altoona Mirror, a local newspaper. Because we find that the release of the report may substantially interfere with the ongoing investigation of Buchanan’s homicide, and the Pennsylvania Coroner’s Act does not mandate release under such circumstances, we reverse and remand. On remand, the trial court should make findings of fact and conclusions of law as to whether the release of the report would substantially impede, obstruct or interfere with the Commonwealth’s homicide investigation.
As it is now eight years after the crime, with no arrests, and five years after the State Supreme Court forbid the filing of the autopsy report, it is reasonable to ask a question:  If the information in the report was so sensitive, so relevant to the investigation, why has no arrest ever been made?  Again, it appears reasonable that either the information would not have interfered with the investigation, or there is some other reason for not making the results available.

Criminal profiling expect Brent Turvey of Oregon is reported to have felt that the killing of Mr. Buchanan seemed to be a personal, vendetta-style attack.  Writing was reported to have been found on Mr. Buchanan’s body.  The autopsy report would settle some questions and perhaps someone in the public would be able to come forward with new information.