A very strange and random attack of a Music Store owner leaves more questions than answers in Bethel Park Pa.

Imagine you are working in your long time music store and its a beautiful day outside everything is going well until a middle age man walks into your store looks at one of the guitars you have on display  he looks it over leaves  then goes out to his car grabs a big wooden stick  and then starts to  attack you apparently for no known reason.
Well it happened a couple of years ago in Bethel Park Pa.


When a 31 year old Andrew Moore walked into the Armens Music Store along Library Road  Pa 88 and he would attack the stores owner  Alfred Armen  with a wooden stick and then his wife Silvia at which time Mr Armen is able to stop the attacker when he pulls out a hand gun and shoots him dead. leaving the Armen's beaten and injured

I passed this store many times in my travels and this is the last thing I would ever had thought would have gone on but it did.
Had Mr. Armen not been able to draw his fire arm it may well have ended with them dead and  I would be writing an article instead on their mysterious deaths .  For as far as the police have been able to find out it was a totally random crime and in the end Mr. Armen was not charged with the killing as it was determined to be self defense





As far as Mr. Moore police did an extensive investigation into him and his mental health and other than him buying some guitar strings many years before he had no interaction with the Armen's. Who at the time of the incident did not recognize him.




Was it Robbery? Had they offended him or friend  in the past  and this was payback?  did he just Snap ? would he have gone on to hurt others after fleeing ? we will never know what was in Mr. Moore's mind that day and we can only speculate.  Either way it was a horrifying incident  the communities and the family's had to deal with and hopefully have healed as time has passed.  But it teaches a very important lesson about mental health issues why they need to be taken seriously and proper treatment made available  when needed instead of the archaic system we now have in the area and it also teaches lessons about  crimes and there randomness that they can happen anywhere to any one at any time even in the quiet community of Bethel Park.  It also goes to prove how you must always be on your guard and with who you interact with. For years later there could be deadly consequences.

Unsolved since 1977 Killing of 5 yr old Stephanie Boller in Beaver county was she a victim of Edward Surrat or Edward Wayne Edwards or an unknown serial killer?

5 yd old Stephanie Boller put on her coat and boots and left her home to go no more than 1 block to see a friend and disappeared  in the blink of an eye she was gone her body to be found  several months later in a Beaver Countys Bradys Run  Park 35 years and still no answers to this and many other disappearances of young girls in beaver county.



It is absolutely frighting the amount of young women and young girls who seemed to have just vanished in 1970 and 80's and even earlier in 1960's  .
with absolutely no clues and in many cases  or any trace of them .
At the time of Stephanie death Edward Surrat and Edward Wayne Edwards where active in there killing pursuits yet there seems to be no known link and since Edwards is dead and Surrat is no longer talking we will never know if they where involved.
But was there another killer going around as well? sure seems like it and when you look at the murder of the saxonburg Police chiefs death and missing Chery Mayhan  it looks like this unknown killer was operating all over western Pa. despite the facts FBI claims a convicted burglar who is now probably dead killed the police chief.

This unknown serial killer would be some one whose job takes them all around Pa. so they would be able to know there way around and dispose of a body with out being caught.  a Truck Driver a Salesman , Contractor. etc. yes something I hate to even think a possibly even active or former law enforcement  officer who would have traveled the areas like a constable or sheriff.  

They say there are no perfect crimes and cold cases are cracked all the time with DNA etc. but 
some cases seem to stay cold forever. and this is one of them. 




A US Navy Ship which was commsioned in Pittsburgh but never saw water

I was a boyscout in early 70's when our  troop got to visit the US Naval Reserve Center in Pittsburgh's Oakland section between the then Carnegie Mellon campus and  US Coal Mines research center buildings .




It was designed inside the building to simulate an actual ship and in the front of the building was a mock up of a ships command center and hull which was visible thru large front glass window  and was commissioned as the USS Oakland . Some time in late 80's the site was sold to Carnegie Mellon University as was the Coal Mine research facility and the naval reserve center moved out to North Versailles .

the Oakland facility was torn down and replaced by the buildings you see in the picture above.
 
I have been trying to find a picture of the building but have been unsuccessful so far  maybe some one reading this article has one and would be willing to share.


 
 


Early 50's attraction in Butler County featured Real Live Circus Animals and down the road was McDonalds Farm our ever vanishing road side attractions

Located off US 422 & Keck Road was a place known as Circus Town USA managed by Pete Keffalas

It consisted of congregated metal buildings painted in a circus theme and at one time held live circus shows.  Started in early 50's it lasted a decade before it closed

and rotted to point the land owner tore what was left of  it down around 2011. when they rebuilt the US422 and Pa 38 Interchange 



I remember as a kid riding pass the brightly painted yet fading metal buildings  and always wondered about the abandoned place and at one point the Pittsburgh Press ran an article all about it and how it was going to partly disappear with the realignment of an intersection.
Seems a family got the idea to run the place as a road side attraction and in fact they had real circus type animal acts people could see  but with ever increasing costs to keep the place running and ever increasing rules on maintaining the animals and fact insurance carriers no longer wanted to write policy's for such places they slowly all started falling away and closing.  Now there where plenty of rumors a wild animal got loose and killed or maimed some one  but this was never the case with Circus town  a panther did get loose one time and was quickly recaptured  .
How ever a lion did get loose at Luna park in Pittsburgh Oakland section which was one of the things condemning that park.




There is very little you can find in the way of pictures or history on Circus town as is the same case with Old McDonalds farm which was a  large petting Zoo along US 422 outside of Butler as well it was still running into early 70's  near Big Butler Farm Show  grounds when it abruptly closed and is now a concrete forms plant.

It had a large barn and many fenced in areas with all kind of animals you could pet.
But again details on the place and pictures are very hard to find.

These are just 2 of many road side attractions now lost to memory  and now mentioned in old tales and rumors of what once was.
While many road side attractions had a very seedy notorious side these 2 did not appear to be so.