Centre Co., PA (WJAC) — A Centre County murder case that is more than 30 years old is still under appeal in federal court.

The defendant claims he was wrongly convicted, partially due to the role of the FBI reviewing the evidence.

It was along a roadway near Bellefonte where the body of a teenage runaway from Maine, 17-year-old Dawn Marie Birnbaum, was found in March of 1993.

The following year, James Cruz was convicted of murdering Birnbaum and sentenced to life in prison.

Police said Cruz, who was a cross-country truck driver, reportedly picked up Birnbaum, had sex with her, then killed her and dumped her body only a few miles from Interstate 80.

Key to the case was pieces of hair as an FBI expert said hair found in rope used to strangle Birnbaum matched Cruz’s, and hair found his truck was hers.

But in 2015, the FBI announced widespread mistakes with hair samples that it had examined from several criminal cases.

Cruz filed an appeal in state court, and it was a year ago this month when the state supreme court announced it wouldn’t hear the appeal.

Cruz has now moved on to federal court with his appeal, using the FBI testing, along with other issues, as grounds for the new appeal.

Previously, the Centre County district attorney’s office has stated it was more than just hair evidence that led to Cruz’s conviction.

There is no word yet on whether his latest appeal will get a hearing in federal court.

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