Crime & Safety

Man Finds Whitehall Woman's Body While Walking Dogs

David Bonaskiewich's beagle alerted him to a dead woman's body off Lanze Lane.

David Bonaskiewich waited until the balmy evening turned cool so he could take his dogs for a walk last night along Lanze Lane in Salisbury. He set out around 8:15 p.m., his Jack Russell terrier pulling his leash in one direction, his beagle pulling in the other.

That is, until the beagle stopped in his tracks and wouldn't move.

Bonaskiewich walked a few paces to see what had gotten his dog's attention.

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a shaken Bonaskiewich recounted Friday.

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A young woman with light brown hair wearing a white or light-colored dress hiked up above her waist, lay still on her left side in a wooded area off the road, he said.

"At first I thought it was a blow-up doll. Then I thought it was a mannequin, but it looked too real. I backed away," he said.

Bonaskiewich called his wife, Cathy, assistant township manager, on his cell phone and told her to call the Salisbury police. And then he sat on a recycling container and waited for police.

The Lehigh County Coroner's office conducted an autopsy today and identified the woman as , 20, of 836 Fernhill Lane, Whitehall. The coroner said Cardona died of blunt and sharp force trauma and has ruled her death a homicide.

Bonaskiewich can't get the chilling image out of his mind and had a nightmare about it last night. It is a scene he hopes to soon forget.


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