A photograph of Elaine Pierson from the Carlisle Sentinel that appeared with stories about her brutal murder which occurred in late December 2006 in Perry County, Pennsylvania.
In early January, 2007, the community of Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, was rocked by the arrest of Rochelle Laudenslager, who was raised there and had graduated from Upper Dauphin Area High School in the 1970s. She was charged with the first-degree murder of Elaine Pierson, whose body was found in a ditch in Perry County. The murder weapon was found hidden in the attic of Laudenslager’s mother’s house in Gratz. Prosecutors sought the death penalty because evidence showed that Pierson was subjected to torture in the process of being killed by Laudenslager. The story that came out over time was that Laudenslager and Pierson were former lovers and that Laudenslager was trying to get back together with Pierson, but Pierson was already in a relationship with another woman.
In a nine-part series of blog posts, the story of the murder, the investigation, the charges, and the eventual sentencing is told as it appeared in the pages of the Carlisle Sentinel. Because of the pain caused to Pierson’s many friends and neighbors as well as the recency of the crime, their names have been omitted from the story.
At the present time, Rochelle Laudenslager has served about half of the minimum of her 30 to 60 year sentence in state prison.
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Part 3 – Remembering the Victim
From the Carlisle Sentinel, January 11, 2007:
MEMORIAL SERVICE SET FOR PIERSON
By Tatliana Zamowski, Sentinel Reporter
A memorial service is scheduled Saturday to remember Elaine Pierson, the Perry County woman whose death police are investigation as a homicide.
According to an obituary published Wednesday in The Phoenix, a Phoenixville newspaper, the service is slated for 3 p. m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church in Phoenixville, with visitation for an hour beforehand.
The obituary says Pierson graduated from Spring-Ford High School in 1976 in Phoenixville and got a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Lock Haven University in 1980. She played varsity field hockey, basketball, lacrosse and tennis in both high school and college.
Pierson worked in sales for financial company Dunn and Bradstreet. She enjoyed golfing, skiing, hiking, running, kayaking and making pottery, the obituary says.
On Sunday afternoon, police searched the Lower Paxton Township townhouse and two vehicles owned by Rochelle Laudenslager in connection with Pierson’s death, as well as the Gratz Borough home of her mother, Betty Lou Laudenslager.
Police say Rochelle K. Laudenslager, 45, was among searchers who found Pierson’s body Saturday in a wooded area of Rye Township about three miles from her home on Trout Lane.
Authorities won’t comment on the nature of the relationship between Laudenslager and Pierson, whose body was officially identified Monday evening from dental records. Authorities have not released the cause of her death.
Police will not say whether Laudenslager is a suspect or a person if interest in the case.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, January 14, 2007:
SLAIN WOMAN ‘MADE EVERY DAY COUNT’
Hundreds of mourners attended Elaine Pierson’s memorial service Saturday in Phoenixville
By Tatliana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
Elaine Pierson‘s family and friends tearfully remembered her Saturday as a person with a zest for life who was planning to celebrate her 50th birthday with an African safari.
“Elaine truly made every day count,” said her older sister… of Pottstown.
But Pierson was killed two years shy of that birthday celebration after she disappeared from her Perry County home in late December. Authorities are investigating her death as a homicide.
When they were children, [her sister] recalled, “Everyone called her ‘dear little Elaine’… By the time I was a teenager and began to date, my parents often sent Elaine with me on my dates so there would be no monkey business,” she said, sparking laughter from the crowd of over 400 people who packed Pierson’s memorial service at the First United Methodist Church of Phoenixville.
Pastor Bronwyn Yocum, who presided over the service, noted how the 48-year old woman studied at Lock Haven University for a career teaching physical education and then took a summer job after graduation at Dunn and Bradstreet. She never looked back, spending the next 26 years with the financial company.
Pierson, who grew up on a farm near Phoenixville in eastern Pennsylvania, chose her home in Rye Township carefully, buying a 5-acre wooded lot on which to build her house, Yocum said. “Her nearest neighbors were turkey and deer.
Loved Outdoors
Pierson was an outdoorswoman, and enjoyed hiking, running, kayaking and cross country skiing. Several people who shared memories of her mentioned her athletic prowess.
She played varsity field hockey, basketball, lacrosse and tennis in both high school and college.
One woman who spoke at the service jokingly remembered “mornings in the locker room, eating our healthy breakfast of candy and soda from the school store.”
At the church, several ceramic bowls she made sat on a table in front of photos of Pierson with various family members and friends.
So far, police have focused their investigation on one woman, Rochelle K. Laudenslager, 45, of Lower Paxton Township. They haven’t yet said whether Laudenslager is a suspect in the case.
On January 7, state troopers searched her home and her two vehicles and her mother’s home in Gratz Borough.
Then on Thursday, police searched Laudenslager’s workplace, the Highmark Inc. offices in East Pennsboro Township, and computers Laudenslager used. According to court documents, police searched Laudenslager’s computer, telephone logs, billing statements and other items.
A probable cause affidavit requesting the search warrant was sealed for days by a Cumberland County judge.
Among Searchers
The two women had a an unspecified relationship, but police say Laudenslager was among searchers who found the body of Elaine Pierson January 6 in a wooded area in Rye Township about three miles from her home on Trout Lane.
Friends last heard from Pierson on December 27 [2006] when one of them had a cell phone conversation with her around 8:15 p. m. They reported her missing December 29.
Authorities and volunteers spent January 3 and 4 searching 1,000 acres of wooded land near Pierson’s home, and then friends returned without authorities on January 6 and found her body. Authorities have not released the cause of her death.
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News articles and photo obtained through Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.