WARNING!!>>>This story contains an event (murder of a child) while I worked for the PSP. Please do not read it, if these types of posts bother you. If the Moderator finds it unsuitable, please remove it.
Today, in my part of PA, it is snowing and also the day before Thanksgiving, all of which brought a sad story to mind and I thought that I would share it. However, if anyone does not like sad stories that end badly, please feel free to close this post.
In Pennsylvania, several small out in the country areas do not have police protection, so the State Police are assigned to cover those areas. It was back in the mid 80's, on a Wednesday before Thanksgiving and it was snowing pretty heavy to the point where schools dismissed early. I was working what most people call second shift, (we rotate shifts), and it was about 4:30 in the afternoon when a call came over my radio for me to see the woman at a given address for a missing child.
When I got to the home, the lady was standing on the front porch with no coat on. As soon as she saw me driving down her lane, which was about 100 yards long, she started to run towards the car. She said the kids got off school early at noon because of the snow, so her 13 year old daughter should have been home. The lady said they also have a younger daughter, which gets home a half hour after the 13 year old gets home and she said that her sister wasn't home when she got home. In PA, we take missing children's reports immediately, There is no 24 hour waiting period.The father was still at work.
After asking all of the usual questions and taking notes, I asked the lady to please go in the house and call all of her friends and find out if any of them had seen her. I got back in my cruiser and did the paperwork and was just completing it when the lady came back out and said no one has seen her. I then radioed dispatch and asked them to get in touch with the school and find out if the bus driver remembered dropping her off and if she noticed any people, cars or trucks that may have been parked in the area that looked out of the ordinary. This took sometime to accomplish, so I backed out to the road and got out of my car and looked around to see if I could see any tracks or footsteps in the snow. By then the snow was just flurries, but I could not see any tracks, only deer and turkey tracks.
I called for backup for all available officers and within 20 minutes, we had 5 State Police Troopers and 3 Detectives on the scene. I also put in a call for all local available police officers and Deputy Sheriffs to report to the address, as well as the 2 fire departments in the area. We ended up with 17 cops and 9 firemen. There was a large woods to the rear of the house and also at the one side. I got my clipboard out of the cruiser and roughly drew a lay of the land and made a grid. I assigned each officer and fireman at the site an area to search. There was a small creek that was not yet frozen that ran through the woods in the rear of the house. We were searching for 15 minutes when one of the officers from a local police department found her lying half in and half out of the creek. She was deceased from strangulation and had been sexually assaulted. Most all of the officers, myself included, were sickened by what we found. We did find footprints in the rear in the woods. There was a small hill at the back end of the woods and he must have came across the open field and then over the small hill and was standing in the woods.
It was reported that the little girl was wearing a purple ribbon in her hair when she went to school, but did not have it on her when she was found. It took 13 months to the day to make the arrest.The man was married with two children of his own. His wife found the little girl's purple ribbon in his truck and called police. She said that she was suspicious of him when it happened because he was acting "very strange" that day. We also learned that the couple had their own daughter removed from their home for 8 months because he was accused of touching the girl inappropriately and she told her teacher at school. He had to undergo court ordered treatment, but then did get their daughter back. (Keeping the ribbon or any property of their victim is something these sickos do as souvenirs.)
When the warrant for his arrest charging him with first degree murder and sexual assault on a minor and two other charges was issued, another Trooper and myself was given the job of picking him up and doing the booking. I told my partner on the way to this guy's place of employment that I wanted to put the cuffs on.
He went to trial 10 months later and tried the insanity defense which didn't fly for him. He was given life, plus an additional 25-life for the SA charge to be served consecutively. He will die in prison.
I hope no one was harmed by this story. It is very tragic. Today being what it is with the snow and the day before Thanksgiving, brought it all to mind, which it does anyway every year. But this needs to be a lesson to all of us to watch our Grandchildren and the children of others carefully. Never take anything for granted and if anything ever looks suspicious, don't be shy about calling the police. The officers would rather go on a wild goose hunt and have nothing be wrong than to have someone notice a car or truck parked in the neighborhood with someone sitting in it for a longer than normal period of time and not call the police and have something like this happen. Make that call.
Today, in my part of PA, it is snowing and also the day before Thanksgiving, all of which brought a sad story to mind and I thought that I would share it. However, if anyone does not like sad stories that end badly, please feel free to close this post.
In Pennsylvania, several small out in the country areas do not have police protection, so the State Police are assigned to cover those areas. It was back in the mid 80's, on a Wednesday before Thanksgiving and it was snowing pretty heavy to the point where schools dismissed early. I was working what most people call second shift, (we rotate shifts), and it was about 4:30 in the afternoon when a call came over my radio for me to see the woman at a given address for a missing child.
When I got to the home, the lady was standing on the front porch with no coat on. As soon as she saw me driving down her lane, which was about 100 yards long, she started to run towards the car. She said the kids got off school early at noon because of the snow, so her 13 year old daughter should have been home. The lady said they also have a younger daughter, which gets home a half hour after the 13 year old gets home and she said that her sister wasn't home when she got home. In PA, we take missing children's reports immediately, There is no 24 hour waiting period.The father was still at work.
After asking all of the usual questions and taking notes, I asked the lady to please go in the house and call all of her friends and find out if any of them had seen her. I got back in my cruiser and did the paperwork and was just completing it when the lady came back out and said no one has seen her. I then radioed dispatch and asked them to get in touch with the school and find out if the bus driver remembered dropping her off and if she noticed any people, cars or trucks that may have been parked in the area that looked out of the ordinary. This took sometime to accomplish, so I backed out to the road and got out of my car and looked around to see if I could see any tracks or footsteps in the snow. By then the snow was just flurries, but I could not see any tracks, only deer and turkey tracks.
I called for backup for all available officers and within 20 minutes, we had 5 State Police Troopers and 3 Detectives on the scene. I also put in a call for all local available police officers and Deputy Sheriffs to report to the address, as well as the 2 fire departments in the area. We ended up with 17 cops and 9 firemen. There was a large woods to the rear of the house and also at the one side. I got my clipboard out of the cruiser and roughly drew a lay of the land and made a grid. I assigned each officer and fireman at the site an area to search. There was a small creek that was not yet frozen that ran through the woods in the rear of the house. We were searching for 15 minutes when one of the officers from a local police department found her lying half in and half out of the creek. She was deceased from strangulation and had been sexually assaulted. Most all of the officers, myself included, were sickened by what we found. We did find footprints in the rear in the woods. There was a small hill at the back end of the woods and he must have came across the open field and then over the small hill and was standing in the woods.
It was reported that the little girl was wearing a purple ribbon in her hair when she went to school, but did not have it on her when she was found. It took 13 months to the day to make the arrest.The man was married with two children of his own. His wife found the little girl's purple ribbon in his truck and called police. She said that she was suspicious of him when it happened because he was acting "very strange" that day. We also learned that the couple had their own daughter removed from their home for 8 months because he was accused of touching the girl inappropriately and she told her teacher at school. He had to undergo court ordered treatment, but then did get their daughter back. (Keeping the ribbon or any property of their victim is something these sickos do as souvenirs.)
When the warrant for his arrest charging him with first degree murder and sexual assault on a minor and two other charges was issued, another Trooper and myself was given the job of picking him up and doing the booking. I told my partner on the way to this guy's place of employment that I wanted to put the cuffs on.
He went to trial 10 months later and tried the insanity defense which didn't fly for him. He was given life, plus an additional 25-life for the SA charge to be served consecutively. He will die in prison.
I hope no one was harmed by this story. It is very tragic. Today being what it is with the snow and the day before Thanksgiving, brought it all to mind, which it does anyway every year. But this needs to be a lesson to all of us to watch our Grandchildren and the children of others carefully. Never take anything for granted and if anything ever looks suspicious, don't be shy about calling the police. The officers would rather go on a wild goose hunt and have nothing be wrong than to have someone notice a car or truck parked in the neighborhood with someone sitting in it for a longer than normal period of time and not call the police and have something like this happen. Make that call.
