Pennsylvania dentist predicted his murder, declared it would go unsolved. So, he paid a private investigator $10k in advance

Nobody can truly know when death is coming for them. But one dentist from Pennsylvania was somehow able to get it spot on when he predicted his own demise in 2006. In the period leading up to his death, John Yelenic became convinced that he would be murdered and that the case would go unsolved.

As a matter of fact, Yelenic was so convinced he would be murdered he even asked his attorney to hold $10,000 to pay a private investigator should he be mysteriously offed. The odd premonition was covered on an episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, (via Oxygen), attorney Effie Alexander explained, “He was convinced that he was going to be killed and that his murder would be covered up and that the evidence would be buried along with him and that it would go unsolved.”

That doesn’t sound like the actions of someone who just thinks they’re going to die, that sounds like somebody who knows they’re going to die. So what did Yelenic know? And why did he think his death would go unsolved.

What happened to John Yelenic?

Ultimately the Pennsylvania dentist’s fear would be realized on April 13th 2006. In the early morning hours, an intruder broke into Yelenic’s home and attacked him. The assailant smashed his head through a plate glass window before slitting his throat. Cyril Wecht, the pathologist who performed Yelenic’s autopsy, described it as “one of the most violent deaths I’ve seen.” Yelenic’s body was discovered by the nine-year-old son of his neighbors the next day.

So the dentist had been right in regards to his prediction of his own murder, but would his case go on to be solved with the evidence being “buried along with him?”

The investigation

For a while it looked like Yelenic might have been right in saying his murder would be covered up. There were numerous suspects, but no solid leads. Police looked into his neighbors, a married couple whom Yelenic had lent money to in the past. There were rumors that he had been sleeping with the wife but she adamantly denied the claims and there was no proof to suggest she was lying.

At the time of his death, Yelenic was going through a bitter divorce with his soon-to-be ex-wife, Michele Kamler. 

The wife had already moved on with a new boyfriend, state trooper, Kevin Foley, however custody of her child with Yelenic was a point of contention in the divorce proceedings. She even accused Yelenic of sexually abusing the boy, something which he denied and of which there was no evidence found to support. Kamler had also been described as “money hungry” with her being the beneficiary of Yelenic’s $1 million life insurance.

A complication

At this point the picture is starting to come into focus, with Kamler and Foley being prime suspects, however, Foley being a state trooper made things difficult. Investigating officer Corporal Janelle Lydic found it difficult to believe Foley could be responsible as she had worked with him, “I let him behind me with a gun and I was ok with that. I was safe.” The district attorney also prevented Lydic from bringing Foley in for an interview.

Things changed when Deputy Attorney General Anthony Krastek was assigned to the case. Foley had reportedly told colleagues “I wish John Yelenic was dead,” and other such things. That, along with evidence gathered by Lydic, was enough to arrest Foley. There was motive and DNA evidence placing Foley at the crime scene, it didn’t take much for a jury to find him guilty.

So in the end Yelenic had been right to suspect he might be killed, likely suspecting his ex-wife and new boyfriend might try something. But at the very least his murder did not go unsolved.