Investigation stalls in Schieber slaying

After a flurry of new information and leads arose last month, the 10-month investigation into the murder of Wharton doctoral student Shannon Schieber seems to have stalled once again. The Philadelphia Police Department took their search to primetime television last Saturday with the case's third appearance on Fox's America's Most Wanted, a television show dedicated to catching the country's most elusive criminals. Police are continuing to actively hunt for the suspect, of whom they now have a composite sketch. The friendly, outgoing and service-oriented Schieber, 23, was strangled to death in her second-floor apartment on the 200 block of South 23rd Street on May 7 last year at about 2 a.m. Her brother found her body the next day when she failed to show up for their scheduled lunch appointment. Although police have yet to name a suspect, new leads in the case last month -- when a DNA sample linked the murder to two 1997 Center City rapes, after which one of the rape victims helped provide a composite sketch of the murderer -- have increased the chances of the suspect being found, according to Philadelphia Homicide Lt. Ken Colluzzi, who is heading the investigation. Saturday's program of America's Most Wanted and the show's World Wide Web site both included the composite sketch of the suspect, thought to be either a light-skinned black man or a dark-skinned white man, about 25 years old, 5'10", with a thin build and short hair. Philadelphia Police have received 15 tips in response to the program so far, according to Colluzzi, who added that they "could still receive some more." Similar to the the other 60 or so tips the Philadelphia Police have pursued during the investigation, Colluzzi said it is unlikely any of the new leads will pan out. "None of them look real promising, but we have detectives that are following through on all of them," he said, adding that he remains "very optimistic" that the killer will eventually be found. The past two episodes of America's Most Wanted that featured the investigation -- over the summer and in November -- elicited about 10 tips each, Colluzi said.