The unsolved slaying of a Butler County mechanic one year ago has state police bothered but unbowed in their hunt for his killer.

The case may be stalled, investigators admit, but it's not cold.

“It remains open and active,” said Sgt. Patrick Sarnese. “We're still doing so much with it on a regular basis.”

Robert C. “Bob” Gaurrich, 45, was gunned down Jan. 11, 2013, at Bob's Truck and Auto Repair Service, a business he operated on Route 68 in Forward Township for several years.

His body was found face down in a limestone pile behind the building he rented for the truck garage.

“The family doesn't know who could have done this,” said Gayle Blackwood of Franklin Township, Gaurrich's sister. “There's no rhyme or reason why anyone would do that to him.”

Trooper Joshua Anderson, the lead investigator, admits police can't answer the family's questions or ease its pain.

“By all accounts, he was a likable man,” Anderson said. “Everybody tells us he had no enemies.”

Since the killing, investigators have done dozens of interviews with relatives, friends and associates of Gaurrich, amassed physical evidence and completed forensic testing.

What police don't have are witnesses, an apparent motive or the murder weapon.

Police think Gaurrich may have been fatally shot with a rifle — possibly his own older model .30-30 rifle that he kept at his shop. Shortly before Gaurrich was killed, he had decided to sell it.

“His friends told us he was planning to show it to a specific buyer (Jan. 9), two days before he was killed,” Sarnese said. “We've never identified that person.”

But he also noted police can't say for sure if that would-be buyer ever looked at the rifle.

Authorities have been unable to find that firearm, which is described as an antique octagon barrel rifle, similar to a flintlock.

A master mechanic

Gaurrich was one of four siblings. He inherited his father's love of and knack for fixing cars, trucks, anything on four wheels, his family said.

He learned the trade from his father and would turn his passion into a profession, working for Sam Magill's truck repair shop in Renfrew.

It wasn't long before he became Magill's head mechanic.

“When it came to truck repair, he was as good as they get,” said Scott Isaacs of Renfrew, a fellow mechanic and one of Gaurrich's closest friends.

“If there was a truck that needed fixed,” Blackwood said, “Bob could do it.”

Eventually, Gaurrich followed in his father's footsteps and opened his own truck repair garage in Forward Township. Gaurrich's father owns his own garage in Evans City.

Gaurrich's small business venture started in 2004. He'd hire help from time to time, Isaacs recalled, but the shop was generally a “one-man operation.”

Business was good, at least at first, and kept Gaurrich busy, friends said.

“He'd work there day and night,” Isaacs said.

The garage also became a hangout for friends to confab, talk trucks and drink beer.

“Bob was a great guy,” Isaacs said. “Everyone liked him. Everyone.”

At his side then, and seemingly forever, was Beth Ann Gartner. The two first became a couple when both were in their mid-teens.

Their longtime relationship turned into a common-law marriage. The consensus of friends was that it was a good relationship.

However, Gartner filed for divorce in June 2011.

Friends said the union ended after Gaurrich met Jessica Hoover and their friendship turned more serious. The two in 2011 moved in together at Hoover's home in Forward Township.

Blackwood said her brother's decision to separate from Gartner was over money. She claimed he blamed Gartner for financial problems at the business and a lack of personal spending control.

Gartner did not return a telephone call seeking comment for this story.

Shot in the building

Investigators say Gaurrich was shot in the 100-foot-long-by-50-foot-wide rental building owned by next-door neighbor Skander Tire. He was hit in the upper chest.

Police think the gunman likely was several yards away from Gaurrich when he fired.

“It was not from point blank range,” Anderson said.

Police have narrowed the time of the shooting to 4 to 5 p.m.

That time is based on earwitness testimony of neighbors, who reported hearing a gunshot in the vicinity of the garage. But none bothered to report what they heard.

“The neighbors didn't think too much of it,” Anderson said. “They thought it could have been from a hunter.” Or maybe a target shooter.

When hit, Gaurrich ran toward the door on the east side of the building. He was bleeding but didn't leave much of a blood trail.

“He was wearing a heavy winter coat that kept the blood from going on the floor,” Sarnese said, “and he's running at full gait.”

He ran another 30 yards in back of the building before he collapsed.

His body would not be found until 11 p.m., after Hoover went looking for him.

Crime scene investigators recovered a .30-30 caliber shell casing near a door to the garage and bullet fragments on the floor.

The evidence has undergone ballistics and other tests. The testing ruled out as being involved in the death the .30-30 rifles recovered at Gaurrich's house and in a customer's pickup truck at his garage.

Motive unknown

Police have declined to discuss certain details of the investigation out of concern that it could jeopardize the case.

Investigators maintain they have theories about a motive, but they won't discuss them.

However, robbery apparently was not the motive. Nothing appeared out of place in the garage, and Gaurrich was still carrying his wallet when his body was found.

There was no sign of forced entry, indicating he may have known his killer.

A drug connection in the slaying also doesn't seem to fit.

“Bob smoked weed and everybody knew that,” Isaacs said. “But to my knowledge, he didn't use anything stronger. And he didn't sell (drugs).”

Police acknowledged they've heard stories that Gaurrich may have been a drug user. But that, too, has been discounted as a motive.

“There's no physical evidence to show a possible drug connection,” Anderson said.

Sarnese noted no drugs or contraband were found at the garage.

A financial motive in the killing has not been ruled out.

“But tracking the financial aspect of the case is challenging,” Sarnese conceded. The challenge is due to Gaurrich's filing system.

“He kept his receipts in a box,” Sarnese said.

Police suspect his financial problems began about the time Gartner left the business, where she worked as his bookkeeper.

Her departure, two months after they separated as a couple, left Gaurrich alone to tend to the books.

In the year or two before his death, Gaurrich had fallen into tough financial times.

“It appears that Bob's life, financially and business-wise, had declined in the last two years,” Sarnese said. “It didn't look like he was doing much business since then.”

Gaurrich left behind a “pretty significant amount of debt,” Sarnese said.

He owed money — from banks to friends — for business and personal expenses.

Gaurrich left behind no will but he named Gartner as beneficiary of a modest life insurance policy. It was not known if Gartner has made a claim on that policy.

Gartner also was the executor of Gaurrich's estate. Last summer, an estate sale auctioned off all his tools and other equipment.

Whodunit?

Anderson said police are “looking at multiple suspects.”

But Sarnese added, “We're not ready to put anyone's name on the record as a suspect.”

Investigators have spoken several times to Hoover, and her former boyfriend, Bradley McCool, who found the body.

Neither Hoover nor McCool is considered to be a suspect.

Hoover told police that she drove past the garage about 9 p.m. Jan. 11 and saw the lights on. She stopped and looked for Gaurrich but couldn't find him inside.

She drove back to their Brownsdale Road home just a mile away but he wasn't there either.

A short time later, Hoover drove back to the business, getting there about 9:45 p.m. Police said she eventually called McCool to help her look for Gaurrich.

McCool came upon the body, and Hoover called 911.

Hoover and McCool have been “cooperative” throughout the investigation, Sarnese said.

Both were given polygraphs and passed.

Other friends and family members, too, have cooperated with police, telling investigators what they know.

Police have also interviewed Gartner twice.

“She was cooperative both those times,” Anderson.

Case still a priority

Gaurrich's death still weighs heavily on those who loved him and on the investigators who are looking for a break in the case.

“It's very, very frustrating,” Blackwood said, “and very disappointing that nothing has come out at all in a year.”

Still, she said, the family remains supportive of police, and she appreciates her monthly talks with Sarnese to review the case.

Sarnese said, “We have spent hundreds and hundreds of man hours working this case.”

Anderson said, “We'll continue to pursue every avenue and every lead we can come up with. This case remains a priority.”

Authorities are asking the public for assistance with any clue, hint or lead.

Meanwhile, Gaurrich's family is trying to raise money to offer as a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his killer.

For police, however, the case may turn out like the Mafia cases of old. Someone's loose lips crack the case.

“That,” Sarnese said, “is what it might take.”