South Nyack Continues to Investigate Decades-Old Homicide

South Nyack authorities are keen to track down .

But it's proving difficult—the 84-year-old was murdered 40 years ago.

Police reopened the cold case homicide over the summer. Authorities accidentally stumbled across the files in August and realized that evidence found at the scene—which remains preserved—could be useful if coupled with new forensic techniques.

But the DNA analysis is going slowly, according to Robert Van Cura, South Nyack-Grandview's police chief. "They prioritize cases at the lab," he explained, noting the most recent sexual assaults and homicides are analyzed first. And since Kalbach was killed decades ago, it could be months before forensic scientists study the evidence.

Authorities' second approach—speaking with witnesses and neighbors to the 1970s crime—is also proving difficult. "Some witnesses have passed away," Van Cura explained. "We're still working to track down the original people interviewed."

The crime occurred on May 24, 1971 in South Nyack's Tower House, a sprawling residence located on the corner of Cedar Hill and Broadway. A rooming house at the time, Kalbach ran the establishment despite her age and poor eyesight; a Nyack periodical that reported on the homicide described her as a "nearly-blind widow."

Kalbach's murder was gruesome—police who arrived at the scene found the elderly woman strangled with one of her own scarves. Her face was bruised heavily, and she had a knife wound across her throat, according to reports. The murderer had poured wine on her body to make her appear inebriated and possibly responsible for her own death, authorities noted.