Remains found in Northampton County identified as missing man, 65

Skeletal remains found Monday by two hunters in Moore Township were those of a 65-year-old Catasauqua man who served time for shooting two people to death in 1990.

William Edelman, who was schizophrenic and lived alone, was last seen March 24 leaving his apartment. Edelman’s family told authorities he was suicidal at the time he disappeared.

The hunters found the remains on state game lands.

“The date of death is consistent with the time at which he went missing,” Northampton County Coroner Zachary Lysek said. “The cause and manner of death will be pending.”

Edelman shot and killed two people and wounded another in 1990 in woods near Kunkletown, Monroe County. He struck a deal in 1992, in which he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to two counts of third-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault. He received a 15- to 30-year prison sentence.

Authorities said Edelman had stopped taking medication for schizophrenia in the days before killing Alex Turoczi III, 37, of Saylorsburg — whom Edelman had known since childhood — and James Yaple, 37, of Kunkletown, and seriously wounding Charles Gustin, then 45, of Nazareth.

Catasauqua police Chief Douglas Kish said police investigating Edelman’s disappearance interviewed people connected to the homicide case, in addition to searching the area with cadaver dogs and drones, and twice conducting sonar searches in the Lehigh River.