In June 1988, the Weiner family’s life took a dark turn. Sally received a phone call from their local congressman, informing her that Harry had been chosen as Corry’s Man of the Year. Excited yet sworn to secrecy, Sally began making arrangements for the upcoming celebration. However, her plans were interrupted by a horrifying sequence of events.
The next day, after leaving to meet someone to discuss the celebration plans, Sally was kidnapped. Harry received a chilling phone call at the bank, where a pre-recorded message from Sally played. She warned him that her captors were demanding money and threatened to mutilate and eventually kill her if Harry did not comply. The kidnappers instructed Harry to look under his car, where he found a bag containing detailed instructions. He was to empty the bank vault into a gym bag and drive 10 miles to an abandoned railroad bridge.
In a desperate attempt to save his wife, Harry contacted the police and the FBI. Surprisingly, he was instructed to pick up an officer from the back of the station who hid in his car with a 12-gauge shotgun. Following the kidnappers’ instructions, Harry drove to the bridge, but no one showed up. After hours of waiting, the FBI advised him to return home.
The next morning, investigators searched the bridge area and discovered a second ransom note, attached to a metal rod with a crepe paper flag. This note led them on a further chase, ultimately bringing them to an abandoned church three miles away. From this vantage point, the kidnapper could have observed Harry’s movements and spotted any police presence. Unfortunately, after 18 hours since Sally's abduction, there was no further communication from the kidnappers.
Despite their efforts, the police were unable to locate Sally alive. On Sunday, two days after the kidnapping, a local farmer found her body. She had been shot in the head with a glazer-type bullet, designed to explode on impact, making it impossible to identify the caliber of the weapon. Her death was described as an execution.
With few leads, the FBI turned to the ransom notes for clues. They discovered that all of the notes had been typed on the same word processor and paper, and the word "exactly" had been consistently misspelled with an extra "e." The break in the case came from an observant police officer who noticed a sign in the window of a local bookstore, Books and More, that used the same unique font and border as the ransom notes. The store's owner, David Copenhefer, was a friend of the Weiner family and attended the same church.
Although Copenhefer denied any involvement, the similarities between his store sign and the ransom notes led police to seize his home and work computers. While an initial search yielded nothing, the investigation revealed that Copenhefer had a questionable alibi for the day Sally was killed. Additionally, a background check uncovered that he had applied for a $25,000 business loan at Harry’s bank, which had been denied less than a year earlier.
Under surveillance, FBI agents observed Copenhefer discarding trash behind his store. A search of this trash yielded crucial evidence, including a used roll of crepe paper matching the material used in the ransom notes and a torn-up duplicate of one of the ransom notes. Further searches of his home revealed the same type of glazer bullets used to kill Sally.
The final piece of evidence came from a manual search of Copenhefer’s computer files. After 33 days of painstaking effort, the FBI recovered 80% of a document titled “The Plan,” detailing the steps of the kidnapping, including picking up Sally. The plan even revealed that Copenhefer intended to kill Harry after receiving the ransom money, a fate Harry narrowly avoided.
With this overwhelming evidence, David Copenhefer was arrested and charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder. Despite attempts to silence witnesses during his trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. He died in January 2013 at the age of 65.
Sally Weiner’s tragic death left a lasting impact on the Corry community, but justice was ultimately served. Her memory remains a testament to the dangers that can lurk even among those we consider friends.