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For the first time, the public is hearing a secretly recorded conversation involving a decades-old missing persons case.

Dauphin County teen Tracy Kroh has been missing since 1989.

It wasn't until earlier this year that we learned 89-year-old Mark Warfel is a suspect in the case.

He has not been charged. But during a competency hearing on an unrelated burglary charge against Warfel, Pennsylvania State Police called him a suspect in the Kroh case and portions of the recording were played.

Since the recorded conversation was entered into evidence, 8 On Your Side investigator Anne Shannon was able to get a copy.

When Kroh's sister, Kim, visited Warfel at his hospital room, Warfel didn't know the woman he called Wheaty was recording the conversation.

Warfel had been friends with Kroh's parents, Ivan and Ellen, for years.

Almost immediately after Kim arrives, Warfel asks her for help getting a lawyer.

During the more than two-hour conversation coordinated by state police and the Dauphin County district attorney's office, Warfel goes on to say he knows who killed the 17-year-old and claims he's actually the one who solved the case.

He details what he believes happened in the Millersburg square in August 1989, blaming a man he refers to as "big goofus."

Kim presses him for more.

Warfel doesn't say how he knows the information but offers details.

Warfel explains the person who killed Kroh kept some of her clothing as a souvenir.

Warfel tells Kim he's the one who told investigators where to find it.

News 8 checked with the Dauphin County district attorney about Warfel's claims. He says investigators never searched that property and haven't found any of Kroh's clothing. But in an interview last month, the DA told us that some of Warfel's statements on the tape are "very significant."

He also offers to help Kroh's little sister find closure.

We have reached out to the public defender who is representing Warfel but haven't gotten a comment at this point.

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