Tag: Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania woman charged with shooting 64-year-old pharmacy executive in face
A 33-year-old woman living with a 64-year-old pharmaceutical executive was charged with shooting him in the face and then staging a burglary to cover her tracks.
Jennifer Morrissey was arrested on charges including burglary, tampering with evidence, possessing instruments of a crime and criminal homicide in the slaying of Michael McNew, from Bucks County, ABC 6 reported.
The pair began living with each other in 2015 but recently had a falling out. According to court documents, he wanted her out of the house, which likely sparked the deadly confrontation.
McNew reportedly told her he’d be boxing up her belongings and sending them to storage.
Authorities found the father and grandfather dead in a chair in his Pennsylvania home — along the Delaware River — on Aug. 8
Investigators were able to recover a series of threatening texts from Morrissey to McNew, sent the same day, according to CBS Philadelphia.
“Get the gun ready cause I’m coming, I already told you I’d be there tonight … guess you’re just going to have to shoot me,” she allegedly texted. “You have a choice. Touch my stuff or I’ll cut your throat.” According to Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub, another text reads: “I’ll gut you like I’m field dressing a [expletive] deer.”
Investigators would not elaborate on the details of Morrissey’s relationship with the executive, though she did indicate he’d been financially supporting her, investigators told NBC.
“It’s safe to assume there was a relationship between Mr. McNew and Ms. Morrissey,” Weintraub said. “It’s not disputed that Ms. Morrissey did have a boyfriend other than Mr. McNew.”
McNew reportedly threatened to give the FBI information on her boyfriend — he has not been charged, though officials believe she tried to cast suspicion on him initially. Investigators said it appeared Morrissey took great care in covering up the crime. She allegedly staged a robbery scene, stealing a laptop and cellphone, as well as deleting all her text messages.
In an interview with police, the 33-year-old suspect tearfully said McNew took care of her and that he didn’t deserve to die.
Morrissey was being held at the Bucks County jail without bail and is slated to appear in court on Oct. 16.
Man who murdered college student transported body in Lyft vehicle
A Philadelphia man is charged in the murder of a Temple University student and is accused of transporting her body to his apartment using a Lyft car.
Joshua Hupperterz, 29, of Philadelphia, was charged Sunday with the murder of 22-year-old Jenna Burleigh, who had been missing since early Thursday morning. He was also charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and possession of an instrument of crime. Investigators said on Saturday he had admitted to elements of the crime. A coroner said Burleigh died from blunt trauma and strangulation. The manner of her death has been ruled a homicide.
Burleigh, of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, was last seen in the area of Pub Webb near Temple University’s campus around 2 a.m. Thursday. Police believe Burleigh and Hupperterz had just met before they left from the bar. Investigators say there is no indication of a prior relationship between the two.
Police said in a statement released Sunday morning, “Hupperterz informed him that he had been so drunk when he left the bar he had no recollection of who he had been with.”
Police sources say Hupperterz transported Burleigh’s body using a vehicle operated by Lyft between two residences.
Investigators processed a vehicle with a Lyft sticker late Saturday afternoon at police headquarters.
“Lyft” released a statement:
“The allegations are devastating. We stand ready to work with the authorities in their investigation.”
On Saturday afternoon, police discovered a body believed to be Burleigh on the lakefront property of Hupperterz’s grandmother in Paupack Township.
Police believe Burleigh was murdered in Philadelphia, then her body was transported to the Jenkintown home, then to Wayne County.
Sources say Hupperterz’s roommate told police he came home to cleaning products and it appeared someone tried to clean up blood.
Our sister station WPVI learned that after a search warrant was executed, blood and drugs were found inside.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said, “We still have a lot of work to do to include trying to figure out, who else may have been involved.”
Burleigh had just started at Temple. A longtime neighbor of the Harleysville native says she was always looking out for others.
“She was a great person, always happy, always energetic. She would advocate for anything you could think of, she was all about equality,” said Julie Hiltner of Lower Salford Township, Pa.
Hupperterz is a former Temple student. Court documents show he was charged with DUI, theft and burglary in 2013.
Charges against other individuals are possible, police said.
Burleigh’s father reacted to the news of her death on his Facebook page Saturday afternoon.
In a statement, the Temple Student Government said:
Those that knew Jenna described her as “big hearted,” “hilarious,” “fiercely feminist,” “unapologetically herself,” and “an incredibly woke young woman.” She spent much of her time combating racism and sexism, as well as defending the rights for LGBTQIA+ community.
Pennsylvania Woman Arrested After Allegedly Allowing Sex Offender to Sexually Assault Young Girl
A woman who police say allowed a known sex offender to abuse a child has been arrested on suspicion of endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors, and reckless endangerment.
The young girl was abused at a home in Overfield Township, Wyoming County, between June of 2015 and July of 2016, KTLA sister station WNEP in Scranton reported Monday, citing Pennsylvania State Police.
Investigators say Marion Keithline — who is now behind bars — was in a relationship with Eric Popejoy, a registered sex offender, at the time.
In February, police arrested Popejoy on charges including child rape.
According to court papers, the young victim told Keithline and others that Popejoy had raped her, but no one helped.
Courts documents also said that Popejoy and Keithline used Craigslist to advertise for sex partners, and the two would host orgies at the home while the child was present.
“Almost every night there was a different vehicle there and half the time she didn’t come home,” said Darryl Benedict, the suspect’s landlord.
Neighbors say when they learned Popejoy was a sex offender, they watched him closely.
“We watched the kids like crazy, didn’t let them outside to play by themselves. It was hard. It was really hard. My grandkids are here all the time,” neighbor Lisa Haraschak told WNEP. She said the whole thing “makes me sick.”
Popejoy and Keithline won’t be allowed to see the young girl anymore, according to police.
“She was alone a lot. We took her to church on Wednesday nights with us so she could get a little more group and a little more education on that behalf, and she was over here a lot of afternoons and spent time with my wife because she was not taken care of over there,” Benedict said.
Keithline is being held on $15,000 bail, while Popejoy’s bail has been set at $1 million bail.
Cops save 11-year-old girl who overdosed on heroin
A Pennsylvania girl was revived with the antidote Narcan after she overdosed on heroin in her home last week, police said.
A family member found the unresponsive girl, who was not identified, in her room in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh just before 6 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the Post-Gazette. Several stamp bags of heroin were reportedly found nearby.
The family member performed CPR on the 11-year-old until paramedics arrived. The paramedics administered Narcan, which blocks the effects of opioids, on the girl and revived her.
She was rushed to the hospital and was said to be in critical condition on Thursday.
Investigators later found the heroin in the room, with at least one of the stamp bags open. The girl’s sister told the Post-Gazette her family didn’t know the 11-year-old was using heroin or where she even got the drug.
The girl was a sixth grade student at South Hills Middle School, according to the newspaper.
Overdose deaths have been rising in Allegheny County within the last eight years. In 2016, there were 613 reported overdose deaths in the county, nearly double the amount from the year before, according to OverdoseFreePA.org.
Naloxone has been widely used as an emergency treatment during drug overdoses. The FDA-approved medication helps restore breathing in patients within 2 to 8 minutes.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/05/08/cops-save-11-year-old-girl-who-overdosed-on-heroin/
Pennsylvania Toddler Hospitalized After Eating From Bag of Meth
Parents of a Pennsylvania toddler are facing child endangerment charges after state police say the girl ate from a bag of meth.
State police said the 22-month-old girl had to be flown to the hospital after swallowing the drugs at a home near Schuylkill Haven Sunday morning, WNEP reported.
Investigators said charges are pending against the girl’s parents, John Kemmerer, 26, and Leanne Popp, 24, both of Auburn.
There was no immediate word on the child’s condition.
Mother brutally assaulted daughter for reciting Bible verses incorrectly (slam head in wall, bites, strangles)
A Middletown woman was arrested after police said she severely assaulted her daughter and kicked her out of her house because the girl incorrectly recited Bible verses to her last week.
Police filed child endangerment charges against Rhonda Kemp Shoffner, 41, of the first block of Genesis Court, following the incident on March 14.
The victim, who is under the age of 13, told police the assault occurred just after she awoke from a nap in her mother’s home about 3 p.m.
Shoffner, who the victim said had been drunk for three days straight, told her daughter to call multiple family members, police said. When they didn’t answer the calls, police said, Shoffner ordered her daughter to get on her knees in the bathroom.
Her daughter knew that meant Shoffner was going to beat her, police said. The victim was scared and pleaded with her mother, according to police in the charging documents.
Police said the victim told her mother, “please don’t hit me. I don’t want to get on my knees.”
Shoffner became enraged and yelled at the victim, telling her “to get on her (expletive) knees,” police said.
The girl complied, and Shoffner began quoting Bible verses, expecting the victim to repeat the lines verbatim, according to police.
Shoffner asked her daughter, “What did God tell the man to do with his son?”
When the girl said she did not know, her mother said, “God told the man to kill his son.”
Instead, the victim said, “God said to forgive his son,” and Shoffner grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head into the wall, police said.
Each time the girl incorrectly recited a verse or gave her mother a wrong answer, Shoffner slammed her head into the wall, police said. Shoffner slammed her daughter’s head into the bathroom drywall at least five times, according to police.
The victim tried to use her hands to defend herself, but Shoffner’s kicks connected at least two times, police said. The girl repeatedly begged her mother to stop, but after her mother told her to lie on her back, she complied, police said.
That’s when Shoffner said, “I’m gonna kill you (expletive deleted),” police said, and she started to strangle her daughter and cut off her airway.
The girl feared for her life and tried to fight Shoffner off, according to police. Shoffner bit the girl’s left forearm and then dug her teeth into her left shoulder, police said.
The victim continued to fight her mother off until Shoffner said, “just leave and don’t ever come back.”
The girl grabbed a phone, a coat, sneakers and fled down the street. She called her father, who drove her to the police station.
Police filed charges of aggravated assault against a child, strangulation and terroristic threats.
via: http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/03/mother_brutally_assaulted_daug.html