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Donor Steps Forward To Offer Limited Time Reward In Unsolved Murder

LATROBE (KDKA) -- Five years after the murder of a Westmoreland County woman, the crime remains unsolved.

Now though, an anonymous donor has stepped forward to offer a very large reward. However, it's for a limited time only.

"I had to ask my mom, 'what?' And I started to cry," Rachel Miller, the victim's sister, said when she found out that an anonymous donor was offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of her sister's killer.

Along with the $5,000 already being offered by Crime Stoppers - that brings the total to $20,000.

"We thought that people forgot about her, and for a person to not forget about her, and to just call five and a half years later and just go, 'Hey, we're going to put this up for your family.' That means a lot," said Miller.

Samantha Lang, 22, was found murdered nearly six years ago in a home on Route 982 in Latrobe. She was lying in a pool of blood after her throat was slashed.

"She was amazing. Everybody that knew her had nothing bad to say about her. She lit up a room," said Miller of her sister. "She gravitated towards people who didn't have many friends."

State police say this remains a very active investigation, and they are confident the case will be solved.

"Homicide in general aren't things that really go unsolved here in Westmoreland County," said Trooper Steve Limani, of Pennsylvania State Police. "We work our tails off to make sure that we do everything we can to make an arrest. In this particular one, we haven't had all the pieces to the puzzle and we're hoping that there's someone out there that has some of the pieces to the puzzle."

For Miller and her mother, Samantha's death never gets any easier. But they are hoping that the new reward will bring an arrest before the sixth anniversary of Samantha's death in March.

"I just hope, you know, if they come forward and it does help that they use it for something good," Miller added.

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