'Friends' torture, kill mentally challenged woman Jennifer Daugherty 30, PA

[MuffyBee]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/12/AR2010021201815.html

Pa. family: 'Friends' torture, kill disabled woman
By DAN NEPHIN
The Associated Press
Friday, February 12, 2010; 1:49 PM

GREENSBURG, Pa. -- A mentally disabled woman was fed vegetable oil, spices, detergent, urine and medications, then forced to write a suicide note, stabbed to death, wrapped in plastic, put in a garbage can and dumped in a school parking lot, police and relatives said Friday as six people were charged.

The head of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty had been shaved, and she had been bound with Christmas decorations and clothing; she also was hit with a towel rack, vacuum cleaner hose and a crutch, according to an affidavit.

Six people were charged with criminal homicide, kidnapping and related charges in the death of Daugherty, who was missing since Monday and whose body was found Thursday at Greensburg Salem Middle School, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Charged were Robert Loren Masters Jr., 36, Ricky Smyrnes, 23, Melvin Knight, 20, Amber Meidinger, 20, all of Greensburg; a 17-year-old girl from Greensburg; and Peggy Darlene Miller, 27, of Mount Pleasant Township. All were being held without bond in the Westmoreland County prison. It was not clear whether they had attorneys.
Stepfather Bobby Murphy, 62, of Mount Pleasant, told The Associated Press that the victim had the mental abilities of a 12- to 14-year-old.

Murphy said he was the last family member to see Daugherty alive, on Monday, when he took her to get on a bus to Greensburg. She had both a dentist and a counselor there who helped her with a mental disability, he said.

Murphy said he's not sure which one Daugherty had an appointment with, but later that day, she called home and asked permission to spend the night at "Peggy's" house. Murphy said his stepdaughter planned to return home Tuesday.

Daugherty had become involved in a community center in Greensburg where she met several people whose names she mentioned as friends, Murphy said - including several whose first names share those of some of the suspects.

"I don't know 'em personally, but Jennifer mentioned some of their names as being her friends - but evidently not," he said.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Knight admitted stabbing Daugherty in the chest, side and neck, and he and Smyrnes carried her body to the parking lot. All six defendants admitted their involvement and implicated others, according to police.

A neighbor in a first-floor apartment reported hearing a "tussle upstairs and a 'heavy bam'" as though a body fell, causing the ceiling to shake before it went quiet on Wednesday night, the affidavit said.

Another resident of that apartment said Smyrnes and two women came to their apartment afterward, and the man asked them to turn their television down, saying his girlfriend was lying down with a headache, the affidavit said.

A man found Daugherty's body Thursday morning when he saw the plastic garbage can partially beneath his truck.

The victim's family moved to Mount Pleasant from Mesquite, Texas, about two years ago to be closer to Murphy's mother-in-law, who is ill, Murphy said.

"One thing I can tell you is there is no reason for them to do what they did to Jennifer," Murphy said. "Jennifer was just a gentle, laid-back person.

"There wasn't a mean bone in her body."

   Rest in peace, Jennifer.    

[MuffyBee]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-middle-school-body-sister,0,4477508.story
Sister of Pa. woman who was tortured, killed says handicap, kindness made her vulnerable
February 12, 2010

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — The sister of a mentally disabled Pennsylvania woman who police say was tortured and stabbed to death says her sister's kindness and handicap made her vulnerable.

Joy Burkholder says her sister Jennifer Daugherty trusted everyone. Burkholder spoke Friday at a news conference alongside Westmoreland County authorities about Daugherty's killing.

The 30-year-old woman's body was found in a garbage can Thursday. Police charged six people who they say fed the woman vegetable oil, spices, detergent, urine and medications before she was killed.

The Westmoreland County coroner says Daugherty was stabbed in the neck, chest and head.

Greensburg Police Chief Walter Lyons says police had responded before to disturbances at the apartment where they believe Daugherty was killed. Police wouldn't give a motive.

[Nut44x4]

I want names and photos of these freaks!! This is an outrage!! 

MOUNT PLEASANT, Pa., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Six people are being held for the torture killing of a Pennsylvania woman whose body was found in a trash can, authorities in Mount Pleasant, Pa., say.

The victim, identified in court papers as Jennifer Daugherty, was beaten and stabbed multiple times before her body was dumped outside Greensburg Salem Middle School, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Friday.

The six suspects, ranging in age from 17-36, were arraigned on multiple charges including kidnapping, conspiracy and criminal homicide.

Three of the suspects are female and the others are male.

They are being held without bond in the Westmoreland County Prison.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/02/12/Six-arrested-for-torture-slaying/UPI-86111266002442/

[Tracygirl]

 
Heartbreaking.....RIP Jennifer, I am so sorry this happened to you. Prayers for her family as well.

They all need to be put to death but before that, the general population needs to get ahold of them for a little while. SOB's may they fry in hell.

[Nut44x4]

And here they are......


The six suspects are: Robert Loren Masters Jr., 36; Ricky V. Smyrnes, 23; and Melvin Knight, 20, all of 428 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Greensburg; Peggy Darlene Miller, 27, Mt. Pleasant Township; Amber C. Meidinger, 20, of 103 Indiana Drive, Building O, Greensburg; and Angela Marinucci, 17, of Greensburg.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_666896.html

[Nut44x4]

Each one of them deserve nothing less than       

[Nut44x4]

Pennsylvania does have the death penalty. It has been utilized just 3 times since 1976 that I can find. Here are 6 more for the table...or chair. USE IT!!

[Tracygirl]

Each one of them deserve nothing less than       

No kidding Nutt, hang them, shoot them, shock them...I don't care as long as they are dead.

I have to admit, this is simply an unbarible crime for me to comprehend. It scares me so much for the world my son lives in.

[Nut44x4]

Posted on Sat, Feb. 13, 2010

Pa. police mum on motive in disabled woman's death

GREENSBURG, Pa. - Jennifer Daugherty's mom and stepdad didn't press for details when she mentioned she had made some new friends. The 30-year-old had the mental abilities of an adolescent but wasn't the kind to get in trouble, and she was even thinking about getting her own place soon.

Police found her body Thursday stuffed into a garbage can in a school parking lot; they say she had been forced to consume detergent and urine , and to write a fake suicide note , before she was fatally stabbed by attackers who also shaved her head and painted her face with nail polish. Six suspects have been charged, including her new "friends."

"She was exploited, and her kindness and her handicap made her very vulnerable," Daugherty's sister, Joy Burkholder, said. "She trusted everybody; she believed everyone was good, and no one would hurt her."

Daugherty's stepfather said she often traveled on her own by bus from her home in Mount Pleasant to Greensburg, about 10 miles away, for dental or counseling appointments. After she hopped onto a bus Monday, she called her folks later in the day seeking permission to spend the night at "Peggy's" house.

It was the last time she would talk to them.

Daugherty went willingly to the apartment where she was killed about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, according to police, who wouldn't discuss a motive or details on how the visit turned deadly.

She was beaten with a towel rack, vacuum cleaner hose and a crutch, and her body was bound with Christmas decorations, an affidavit said. Police said she was fed vegetable oil, medications and spices in addition to soap and urine.

She was stabbed multiple times with an unknown weapon in the neck, chest and head, Westmoreland County Coroner Kenneth Bacha said. Authorities said they found the victim's belongings in the building's attic, as well as items that had been used to clean up blood.

"She was at the wrong place, at the wrong time, stumbled into a bad situation," said Greensburg Police Chief Walter Lyons.

Six people were charged with criminal homicide, kidnapping and other counts: Robert Loren Masters Jr., 36, Ricky Smyrnes, 23, Melvin Knight, 20, Amber Meidinger, 20, and Angela Marinucci, 17, all of Greensburg; and Peggy Darlene Miller, 27, of Mount Pleasant Township. All were being held without bond in the Westmoreland County prison. Prosecutors didn't know whether any of them had attorneys.

There was already a warrant for Smyrnes' arrest at the time of Daugherty's killing, according to a review Friday of criminal records available online. He was charged Jan. 30 with possessing instruments of crime, but the records don't detail the allegations. He was also awaiting trial on simple assault and harassment charges and pleaded guilty on four occasions to charges ranging from burglary to simple assault, theft and trespassing.

Lyons said he believed Daugherty had "some relationship" with Smyrnes.

Stepfather Bobby Murphy, 62, of Mount Pleasant told The Associated Press that Daugherty had the mental abilities of a 12- to 14-year-old.

Murphy said he was the last family member to see Daugherty alive, on Monday, when he took her to get on the bus to Greensburg. He was not sure with whom Daugherty had an appointment, but said that later that day, she called home and asked about going to her friend Peggy's. Murphy said his stepdaughter planned to return home Tuesday.

Daugherty had become involved in a community center in Greensburg where she met several people whose names she mentioned as friends, Murphy said , including several whose first names share those of some of the defendants.

"I don't know them personally, but Jennifer mentioned some of their names as being her friends , but evidently not," he said.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Knight admitted stabbing Daugherty in the chest, side and neck, and he and Smyrnes carried her body to the parking lot. All six defendants admitted their involvement and implicated others, according to police.

A neighbor in a first-floor apartment reported hearing a "tussle upstairs and a 'heavy bam'" as though a body fell, causing the ceiling to shake before the apartment went quiet Wednesday night, the affidavit said.

Another resident of the first-floor apartment said Smyrnes and two women came to their apartment afterward, and that the man asked them to turn their television down, the affidavit said.

The neighbors, Floria Headen and Angela McGowan, said that people frequently came and went from the apartment and that they had called police about a half-dozen times to complain.

"They was coming in droves. You didn't know who was living there," McGowan said. "It was unreal. All the noise and the pounding and the fighting and the drinking, you thought the ceiling was going to come in on you."

A man found Daugherty's body Thursday morning when he saw the garbage can partly beneath his truck.

Headen has since learned that the Christmas lights police said were used to bind Daugherty had been taken from her porch. The garbage container in which her body was found belongs to Headen's daughter, who lives several houses away, she said.

"I'm in shock, and I'm angry," McGowan said. "I'm angry and it's like you want to cry because that poor child was tortured."

Burkholder described her sister as kind and said she liked scary movies, wrestling and college football.

Daugherty's family moved to Mount Pleasant from Mesquite, Texas, about two years ago to be closer to Murphy's mother-in-law, who is ill, Murphy said.

"One thing I can tell you is there is no reason for them to do what they did to Jennifer," Murphy said. "Jennifer was just a gentle, laid-back person.

"There wasn't a mean bone in her body."
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/20100213_ap_papolicemumonmotiveindisabledwomansdeath.html

[suzyinpgh]

The death penalty is too good for them.  They should be tortured, just like Jennifer was.  How do people get so cruel? 

[cookie]

And here they are......


The six suspects are: Robert Loren Masters Jr., 36; Ricky V. Smyrnes, 23; and Melvin Knight, 20, all of 428 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Greensburg; Peggy Darlene Miller, 27, Mt. Pleasant Township; Amber C. Meidinger, 20, of 103 Indiana Drive, Building O, Greensburg; and Angela Marinucci, 17, of Greensburg.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_666896.html

look at all of these misfits! how do so many weirdos manage to find each other???

[Edward]

This young girl was the victim.. Very Very sad



This is the home where they did unspeakable and probably still untold tortures to this child in the name of fun and enjoyment.

A memorial face book page has been set up for this child..

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=search&gid=331717294186

Police say Jennifer Daugherty was stabbed repeatedly in a second-floor Greensburg apartment where some of the suspects live. Police say that Daugherty was beaten, that her face was painted with nail polish and that she was fed vegetable oil, spices, detergent, urine and medications. Her head was shaved and she was bound with Christmas decorations and clothing.




Our society is falling apart in Moral values and behaviors. mo.

[Edward]

The poor me defense bullcrap begins..mo.

GREENSBURG, Pa. —  Court records show that the mother of a 20-year-old Pennsylvania woman charged with torturing and killing a mentally disabled woman tried to sell her daughter for $10,000 when she was a little girl.

Amber Meidinger, of Greensburg, and five others are charged with homicide in last week's death of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty, whose body was found in a parking lot.

Meidinger's mother, Flora Meidinger, pleaded guilty in Westmoreland County Court in 1995 to trying to sell Amber in May 1994, when Amber was 4.

Meidinger, who changed her name to Flora Haase, said she needed money for bills. Police arrested her in a sting. She was sentenced to two years of probation and had to undergo a mental evaluation.

Amber Meidinger and the other defendants are in the Westmoreland County prison.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586021,00.html?test=latestnews

[Tracygirl]

This young girl was the victim.. Very Very sad



This is the home where they did unspeakable and probably still untold tortures to this child in the name of fun and enjoyment.

A memorial face book page has been set up for this child..

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=search&gid=331717294186

Police say Jennifer Daugherty was stabbed repeatedly in a second-floor Greensburg apartment where some of the suspects live. Police say that Daugherty was beaten, that her face was painted with nail polish and that she was fed vegetable oil, spices, detergent, urine and medications. Her head was shaved and she was bound with Christmas decorations and clothing.




Our society is falling apart in Moral values and behaviors. mo.

Thank you Edward for bringing the facebook page forward. She has over 14,000 members on that page. What a wonderful smile this person had, so happy and so full of life.

[Tracygirl]

The poor me defense bullcrap begins..mo.

GREENSBURG, Pa. —  Court records show that the mother of a 20-year-old Pennsylvania woman charged with torturing and killing a mentally disabled woman tried to sell her daughter for $10,000 when she was a little girl.

Amber Meidinger, of Greensburg, and five others are charged with homicide in last week's death of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty, whose body was found in a parking lot.

Meidinger's mother, Flora Meidinger, pleaded guilty in Westmoreland County Court in 1995 to trying to sell Amber in May 1994, when Amber was 4.

Meidinger, who changed her name to Flora Haase, said she needed money for bills. Police arrested her in a sting. She was sentenced to two years of probation and had to undergo a mental evaluation.

Amber Meidinger and the other defendants are in the Westmoreland County prison.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586021,00.html?test=latestnews

Nope not enough, her mother tried to sell her, so what! Not a reason or excuse to take a person and torture them to death. The malice of the crime is unspeakable. These 6 are going away for a long, long time.

[cookie]

let's hope that they are going away for a long time Tracy...can't even add anything here...such an unspeakable crime...

[Nut44x4]

Six defendants held for trial in woman's murder

By DAN NEPHIN, Associated Press Writer
Published: Friday, March 5, 2010 12:04 PM EST

GREENSBURG - One of six defendants charged in the torture death of a mentally disabled woman recounted in a recorded statement played Thursday at a preliminary hearing how he repeatedly stabbed the woman, and how he and some of the others beat her and fed her urine, feces and detergent.

After the five-hour hearing, Greensburg District Judge James Albert ordered all defendants to stand trial on charges of homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy.

Even as he admitted stabbing 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty in the chest and neck and helping dump her body, Melvin Knight said co-defendant Ricky Smyrnes primarily called the shots.

The recorded statements of both Knight and Smyrnes, both from Greensburg, were played in court and indicated the defendants were angry with Daugherty because she wanted to have sex with Smyrnes while she visited them at an apartment in Greensburg, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh. She began her visit Feb. 8; her body was found about 7 a.m. Feb. 11.

After being tied up, beaten repeatedly and forced to drink the concoctions over roughly a day and a half, Knight said Smyrnes told him Daugherty had to die.

``Ricky went and got a knife and told me to stab her. I hesitated for a little bit, then I stabbed her,'' the 20-year-old Knight said on the recording. He admitted stabbing her ``about three'' times in the chest sometime in the early hours of Feb. 11.

He said he stabbed her again in the side after Smyrnes said she was still alive.

Knight recounted how he and Smyrnes then stuffed Daugherty's body in a trash can and carried it to a nearby school parking lot, where they shoved it under a truck. Knight told detectives that he then feared the 23-year-old Smyrnes.

``It was either me or Jennifer, or my fiance'' - Amber Meidinger, 20, another defendant, Knight said. Meidinger was pregnant with his child, he said.

As Daugherty's final hours were recounted, some of her family members wept and, at times, stared at the handcuffed and shackled defendants seated about 10 feet away.

Daugherty's family declined comment after the hearing.

Her stepfather, Bobby Murphy, 62, of Mount Pleasant, previously said she had the mental abilities of a 12- to 14-year-old.

Knight, Smyrnes and Meidinger occasionally smirked and smiled during the hearing. Knight mouthed ``Yes'' in sync with his taped voice as a detective asked him if he understood his rights.

In his recorded statement, Smyrnes admitted having sex with Daugherty. He acknowledged that angered his girlfriend, Angela Marinucci, 17, another defendant.

He said he, Knight, Meidinger and Marinucci began beating Daugherty and tied her up on Feb. 9. In the early morning of Feb. 11, he said, Knight stabbed her.

Smyrnes said he sliced Daugherty once on the arm, but only because Knight forced him to. He said Knight also forced him at knifepoint to take sleeping pills.

Attorneys for five defendants declined comment the hearing.

The chief public defender in Westmoreland County, Dante Bertani is representing Peggy Miller. He said she was ``a little slow,'' and at least several defendants had ``mental health backgrounds.'' The defense was trying to document them, he said.

In his recorded statement, Smyrnes mentioned he hadn't taken his bipolar medication.

``I'm not excusing what they did. But you also have to take into consideration that if you have people who are not able to make the same kind of judgments that you or I might make, that's some mitigation of what happened,'' he said.

He said Miller and sixth defendant, Robert Loren Masters Jr., 36, were specifically cleared of wrongdoing by the statements of Knight and Smyrnes. Though they may have been there, he said, they had no obligation to intervene.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said other evidence would come out showing others' involvement.

The defendants declined comment outside the courtroom. But, as he was being put into a sheriff's van to be transported to jail, Miller said, ``We're sorry what we did and we didn't mean it.''

A formal arraignment is set for April 23, but a trial date has not been set.

Peck said he hasn't decided whether to seek the death penalty.
http://online.indianagazette.com/articles/2010/03/05/news/10036732.txt

[cookie]

Peck hasn't decided if he will seek the death penalty?

[Nut44x4]

DA Still Mulling Death Penalty For Torture Killing Suspects
6 People Facing Death Penalty In Connection With Death Of Mentally Disabled Woman
POSTED: 11:19 am EDT April 23, 2010

The Westmoreland County district attorney has 45 more days to decide whether to seek the death penalty against any of the six people accused of torturing and killing Jennifer Daugherty.

The district attorney was supposed to make this decision on April 23, but was granted an extension by the judge in the case.

snipped

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/23244184/detail.html

[Edward]

I would have taken 10 seconds for that decision..
Death Penalty is a good thing for people that would do this to another person especially a disabled person.

jmho