A Lehigh County jury Friday acquitted a Slate Belt man who was arrested last year in a 1989 cold-case murder investigation .

Rose Josephine Hnath, 78, was murdered in her North Whitehall Township home. She was found dead Jan. 21, 1989, after failing to appear at a local church service she regularly attended, according to investigators.

Hnath died from stab wounds and blunt-force trauma, and her death was ruled a homicide.

Family members who discovered her body after going to check on her found her home had been ransacked.

The widow lived alone in the 2600 block of South Second Street along the banks of the Lehigh River.

Authorities last year said investigators at the time were able to seize items from the home and across the street, including a knife and pellet gun, that were stored

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