Thirty years after a Fayette County woman said a mysterious stranger abducted and killed her 2-year-old son, state police have arrested her for the boy's murder.

The arrest developed from cold-case files that Sgt. David Heckman of the Uniontown state police barracks asked a veteran criminal investigator, Trooper Jeffrey W. Ramsey, to examine with "a fresh set of eyes."

The suspect is Glenda Rae Masciarelli, 52, of Masontown, a kitchen aide and dishwasher at Uniontown Country Club.

Charged with homicide, she was being held without bail in the Fayette County Prison after her arrest Friday.

State police alleged that she killed her son, Alfred Paul Masciarelli Jr., and said she confessed last week during a second interview conducted by Cpl. Anthony Guy, a polygraph expert.

"I figure she was living with guilt all of this time," Trooper Ramsey said yesterday.

Alfred, her only child, was found in a creek Sept. 26, 1976, the day of the alleged abduction.

Mrs. Masciarelli initially blamed her son's death on a tall, thin, bearded man. She said he came out of the woods and snatched Alfred while they were out for a walk in the middle of the day.

She said the man took Alfred near railroad tracks not far from the Masciarellis' home, then ran south. Mrs. Masciarelli said she went to a neighbor's home to report the abduction.

Soon after, neighbors found Alfred's body in the creek, which is between Route 857 and Big Six Road in Georges Township. The boy had drowned.

"There is no statue of limitations on homicides," said Trooper Ramsey, a state policeman for nearly 25 years. "Periodically, we look at cold-case files to see if there's anything we can do with the advance of technology like DNA testing."

After Sgt. Heckman handed him the Masciarelli file, "I thought maybe I could pick something up that had been overlooked," Trooper Ramsey said. He focused on a 30-year-old polygraph test that turned out to be inconclusive.

When Trooper Ramsey went to Mrs. Masciarelli's residence, he said, she expressed surprise that state police were still interested in the case.

He said she voluntarily came to the barracks to talk about taking a new, more sophisticated polygraph test.

"Cpl. Guy got her to dispel the notion that another assailant ever existed. We pretty much left it at that at the time."

During a second interview, "She took responsibility [for the boy's killing] but did not explain exactly how she did it," Trooper Ramsey said. The polygraph test was never administered; Mrs. Masciarelli was arrested and read the Miranda rights.

Mrs. Masciarelli is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing Thursday before District Judge Randy Abraham.