A front-page article that appeared in the Carlisle Sentinel, January 25, 2007, indicating that police were focusing on the gun that recovered from the Laudenslager home in Gratz.
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 5 – The “Smoking Gun” and Charges
From the Carlisle Sentinel, January 17, 2007:
POLICE MUM ON PIERSON LEADS
By Tatliana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
State police say they are interviewing other friends of Elaine Pierson in connection with her homicide investigation, but they won’t release any names because of what happened after the media obtained the search warrants for Rochelle Laudenslager‘s home.
Pierson’s friend had been talking to police but then got an attorney after her name was in the news, so the police can only question her if he is present.
And George Matangos hasn’t returned some phone calls that police made to him, says Sgt. Charles Ringer of state police at Newport.
Warrants Obtained
“That kind of hurt us a little bit” that members of the media got public search warrants showing the police searched Laudenslager’s home, her vehicles, her mother’s home and her workplace, ringer said. “That name should have never come out there,” he said.
information about the searches was obtained by reporters from public documents.
On January 7, investigators searched the Lower Paxton Township townhouse and two vehicles owned by Laudenslager, as well as the Gratz Borough home of her mother, Betty Laudenslager. A Dauphin County judge sealed the affidavit of probable cause used to obtain the warrants for 60 days, but the documents filed after the search was completed remain public records. These show name and address and list items seized in the search.
Affidavit Gives Details
The sealed affidavit explains in detail why investigators want to do a search.
On January 11, police went to East Pennsboro Township and searched the Highmark Inc. offices and computers used by Laudenslager as an employee there. In that instance, a Cumberland County judge sealed the affidavit of probable cause for 30 days, but the other documents related to the completed search are public documents.
About Public Records
The public records are fair game for anyone — reporters or the public — to look at, says Melissa Bevan Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.
“The public has a right to inspect the documents of the court at any time” unless a judge seals them, Malewsky says, adding the U. S. Constitution, the Pennsylvania Constitution and common law all protect that right.
Investigators otherwise are making progress on the homicide investigation, Ringer says.
“Everyone we’re coming across is cooperating.”
Police are interviewing her friends and acquaintances to “eliminate” them as suspects, he says.
“We’re not stagnant, we’re not to the point of saying we’re not going any further,” he said.
Other state police barracks are sending officers to help out the Newport barracks, and because of local troopers’ involvement when a man killed himself Saturday, state police at Harrisburg is investigating whether Joseph Dum had any connection to Pierson.
He was parked near where her body was found when police approached him to ask what he was doing and he fled.
After an altercation with police, Dum stabbed himself fatally in the heart, authorities said.
Pierson, 48, of Rye Township, was found dead January 6 [2007] in the woods near the intersection of Lambs Gap and Idle roads. She was reported missing December 29 [2006] by friends.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, January 25, 2007:
POLICE FOCUS ON GUN IN SEARCH
Dates on a search warrant match Pierson disappearance
By Tatiana Sarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
State police are looking at a weapon that may have been used in a criminal homicide at the same time of Elaine Pierson’s death.
State police at Newport filed a search warrant this week seeking the barrel of a .22-caliber firearm and “any and all ammunition” for it. The gun was at the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department, according to the warrant.
A Cumberland County judge sealed for 60 days the search affidavit that tells why investigators want to inspect the weapon, and police would not comment this morning on whether the weapon is related to the Pierson homicide investigation.
But the search warrant filed by Trooper James Albert says police want to examine the gun in connection with a homicide that took place between December 27 [2006] and January 6 [2007].
Pierson, 48, of Rye Township, was found dead January 6 in the woods near the intersection of Lambs Gap and Idle roads, and though police have called he death a homicide, they have not released the cause of her death.
A search warrant filed in Dauphin County relating to a January 7 search of a friend’s home said authorities were looking for firearms as well as “human biological evidence” such as blood, hair, saliva and fingernails, clothing, and “documentary evidence,” including letters, photos, sales receipts, e-mails and maps.
Police will not say whether that friend, Rochelle K. Laudenslager, 45, is a suspect or a person of interest in the case.
Her attorney, George Matangos, hasn’t allowed the Lower Paxton Township woman to talk to authorities since she gave initial statements to them before the search of her home, vehicles, her mother’s home and her office.
“Why would I? They’re stopping just short of naming her,” Matangos said.
“She has cooperated with them. She gave them statements, she’s spoken with them at the scene.”
Marangos said Laudenslager and Pierson “had a personal relationship that ended about four years ago. Since then, they were friends.”
Pierson was reported missing December 29 by friends, who last heard from her in a phone call December 27 [2006].
Police have said Pierson’s home was intact after her disappearance, with her cell phone, keys and glasses still in their places.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, February 13, 2007:
AFFIDAVIT SEALED ANOTHER 30 DAYS
Authorities searched the workplace of a friend of a Perry woman whose body was found January 6
By Tatiana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
A search warrant pertaining to a Perry County homicide investigation will remain sealed for at least another 30 days.
An order extending the seal on the probable cause affidavit, which tells the judge why investigators think a search warrant is necessary, was sealed again February 8 “because the investigation is still ongoing,” says District Attorney David Freed.
A warrant to search the Highmark offices in East Pennsboro Township was filed in Cumberland County Court, officials say. Highmark is the workplace of Rochelle Laudenslager, a friend of Elaine Pierson, the Rye Township woman whose death state police are investigating as a homicide.
Search January 11
Police searched Laudenslager’s computer, telephone logs, billing statements and other items on January 11.
Freed says a sealed affidavit can become public if the order expires and is not renewed or if someone is charged with the crime.
Found January 6
Pierson, 48, disappeared in late December and her body was found January 6 near the intersection of Idle and Lambs Gap roads in Rye Township, a few miles from home.
State Police investigators had no additional information on the status of the investigation.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, February 16, 2007:
ARREST IN KILLING
By David Blymire, Sentinel Reporter
After their relationship ended in 2002, Elaine Pierson had recently gotten back in touch with her former lover, Rochelle Laudenslager. For at least two months, the women had been trying to get together to catch up, but their last meeting proved fatal, police say.
On Thursday, Newport state police charged Laudenslager, 45, of Spring Knoll Drive, in Lower Paxton Township, in connection with Pierson’s death after police found what they believe to be the murder weapon in the attic in the Gratz home of Laudenslager’s mother, Betty Laudenslager.
State police say blood discovered inside the barrel of the .22. caliber revolver matches Pierson’s blood and projectiles found inside her body were fired from the same weapon.
Pierson, 48, was found dead of four gunshot wounds on January 6, her body clad in pajamas and dumped in the woods near Lambs Gap road at the Cumberland-Perry County border, where it had been for several days. Laudenslager was with the search party that found Pierson’s body.
She told police on January 2 that she was interested in rekindling a relationship with Pierson, but couldn’t because Pierson was in a relationship with another woman, according to the criminal complaint. On the day of Pierson’s death, Laudenslager was supposed to meet with her, but she told police she canceled because she was scheduled to go to a doctor’s appointment and then to visit with her mother.
Laudenslager did indeed meet up with her mother on that night, but she came bearing a gun.
On February 12, Betty Laudenslager told police her daughter arrived at the home the night of December 27, carrying family’s Colt Frontier scout Commemorative .22-caliber revolver in a plastic bag, according to the complaint. From there, according to the criminal complaint, Laudenslager placed the weapon in a commemorative box and hid it under insulation in the attic.
Pierson hadn’t been heard from since that night.
After friends complained to police that she had failed to keep several appointments, police found her body in the woods. She had be shot in the hand, torso and eye, according to Perry County District Attorney Charles Chernot III. On February 9, investigators determined a bullet found in her spine was discharged from the laudenslager family gun.
On February 15, they received DNA evidence that linked the blood found in the barrel of to that of Pierson’s Laudenslager was arraigned Thursday night before District Judge Daniel McGuire on charges of criminal homicide, kidnapping and burglary.
Chenot said authorities don’t yet know the motive for the shooting but added that he’s not ruling out the death penalty.
“We have a number of suspicions but we don’t know what the motive was,” Chernot said during a press conference at Perry County Courthouse in New Bloomfield.
After Pierson was first reported missing from her home on Trout Lane December 29, police investigators said they found no signs of a struggle or other criminal activity.
However, Sgt. Gilbert Morrisey said Pierson didn’t leave her home willingly.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, February 17, 2007:
THE GUN CLINCHED IT FOR MURDER SUSPECT
Rochelle Laudenslager also was fired from Highmark on Friday.
By Tatliana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
State police questioned and searched Rochelle Laudenslager in the month and a half after Elaine Pierson went missing, but were apparently waiting fort the last piece of evidence to clinch her arrest.
It came on Thursday, when a laboratory reported blood in the barrel of a gun found at Laudenslager’s mother’s home matched Elaine Pierson‘s DNA.
“That’s kind of what pulls it all together, was the gun,” Perry County District Attorney Charles “Chad” Chenot said Friday.
So they arrested Laudenslager, 45, in her Lower Paxton Township home and charged her with first-degree murder, felony kidnapping and felony burglary with the intent to kidnap. The district attorney has not ruled out asking for the death penalty.
Laudenslager next faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge Daniel McGuire, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.
She apparently exercised her Miranda rights and didn’t talk to authorities when she was in police custody on Thursday. “My understanding is that she didn’t have a whole lot to say,” Chenot said.
But Laudenslager, who worked for Highmark for 19 years until her employment was terminated Friday, appeared willing to tell police about her relationship with Pierson before troopers started serving search warrants that indicated she was a focus of the investigation.
Police knew early on they were looking for a killer who was friends with Elaine Pierson and her German shepherd, since there was no evidence of a struggle at her Perry County home.
At 5:50 p. m. December 29, the same day that friends… reported Pierson missing, Laudenslager talked to Trooper Cory Robenolt at Pierson’s Rye Township home. It had been two days since anyone close to Pierson had contact with her.
According to court papers filed Thursday with District Judge McGuire, Laudenslager was at Pierson’s home “because she identified herself as a close friend and past lover of Elaine Pierson.
Laudenslager allegedly told Robenolt she and Pierson were lovers from 1998 until 2002, at which point they were no longer close. In the two months before December 29 they were “active” friends, although not lovers, police say in the criminal complaint.
She told them she had been to Pierson’s home often and knew the dog, Radcliffe.
Police said they found Pierson’s home unlocked and nothing disturbed inside. He cell phone, keys and glasses were there and a gas fireplace was turned on, there was no sign of forced entry or robbery, police said.
In the court papers filed Thursday, police also say they found a pile of “day wear” clothing in Pierson’s bedroom that she apparently took off before she donned pajamas.
At 2:55 p. m. January 2, Troopers James Albert and Robenolt interviewed Laudenslager again, this time in the parking lot of PNC Bank in Camp Hill.
Laudenslager allegedly told them she wanted to have a romantic relationship with Pierson again, but Pierson was interested in another woman and Laudenslager wouldn’t date Pierson unless Pierson stopped seeing the other woman.
And police say Laudenslager told them she was trying to get together with Pierson all week, but their schedules didn’t work out. On December 26, Pierson’s sister visited and on December 27 Pierson and Laudenslager were supposed to get together but Laudenslager couldn’t make it because “she had a doctor’s appointment on Trindle Road and was to see her mother afterward,” court papers say. Pierson had plans December 28, Laudenslager told police.
On January 3 and 4, police, neighbors, volunteer firefighters and Pierson’s friends searched a swath of wooded hillside near Pierson’s home and turned up no clues about her disappearance.
Friends Searched Alone
Pierson’s Friends headed out to search for her body without police on January 6, looking in the wooded area around Lambs Gap and Idle roads about three miles from her home. They found her at the bottom of an embankment. Laudenslager was with the searchers that day police said.
In court papers, police say Pierson’s body was clad in pajama pants, a night shirt and an undershirt. Her bedroom slippers and socks were a short distance away.
An autopsy report showed Pierson died of multiple gunshot wounds and suffered four wounds — to her eye, chest, hand and fourth location that authorities still aren’t disclosing. Chenot, the Perry DA, says authorities believe the hand wound appeared to be “defensive.”
Authorities ruled her death a homicide and her dentist confirmed her identity within a few days of finding her body.
Meanwhile, police already had a finger on Laudenslager.
On January 7, Troopers Douglas Woodcock and Steven Arnold searched Laudenslager’s home, taking with them her journal, vacation resort tickets, a newspaper that was on a pantry floor, photos, camera cards and her computer tower. They also searched her two vehicles and the Gratz home of her mother, Betty Laudenslager.
Bullets taken from Pierson’s body were taken to the State Police Harrisburg Regional Laboratory for ballistic testing on January 10, and that afternoon, Trooper Todd Neumyer from the ballistics section called police at Newport with information that the projectiles were lead, .22-caliber rounds.
Workplace Probed
The next day, January 11, state troopers searched Highmark’s Camp Hill offices where Laudenslager worked. They focused on her computer, telephone logs and billing statements. The affidavit showing why police wanted to search those items is still sealed by Cumberland County Court, and can remain so until Laudenslager’s formal arraignment in Perry County Court.
Hundreds of mourners gathered in Phoenixville on Saturday, January 13 to remember Pierson in her memorial service. Family and friends recalled “dear little Elaine” who was a beloved aunt and planned an African safari for her 50th birthday.
Pierson worked in sales for New Jersey based financial company, Dunn and Bradstreet.
Around the same time that day, police were in a confrontation with Joseph Dum, a Harrisburg area man who they spotted in the area where Pierson’s body was found. They chased him for a few miles until Dum got stuck in a muddy field and they ordered him to exit his vehicle.
Dum resisted, lunged with a knife at a trooper who leaned into the vehicle and then Trooper Gregory McCombs shot Dum in the arm. Dum, apparently distraught about being arrested, stabbed himself fatally in the heart, police said.
The resulting internal police investigation removed McCombs and Trooper Cory Robenolt from active police duty. Both were working on the Pierson case. Authorities later said they found no connection between Dum and Pierson.
On January 17, Neumyer from the ballistics unit told police he had narrowed to six the list of companies that could have manufactured the bullets found in Pierson’s body, court papers say. He considered Colt to be the most probable manufacturer.
Later that month, on January 31, Troopers Steven Strawser and Douglas Woodcock found out that the Laudenslager family owned a gun. That same day, Trooper Albert recovered a Colt Frontier Scout Commemorative .22-caliber single action revolver from Betty Laudenslager‘ home [in Gratz], under some insulation in the attic.
They brought it to the Harrisburg laboratory the next day to determine whether there was blood on the weapon. results from the local lab were sent to the Greensburg Regional DNA Laboratory for analysis.
On February 9, a Friday, the Harrisburg lab determined that a bullet taken from Pierson’s spine came from the Colt revolver.
So on Monday, Troopers James Albert and Steven Strawser traveled to Gratz again. This time, Betty Laudenslager told them her daughter brought the revolver to her house in a plastic bag on December 27 “during the nighttime hours,” court papers say.
Rochelle Laudenslager took the gun out of the bag, put it back in its commemorative box and took it up to the attic, police say her mother told them.
No one answered the phone at Betty Laudenslager‘s home Friday.
Almost all the pieces were place for Rochelle Laudenslager’s arrest. Then police got the DNA results back from the Greensburg lab on Thursday.
A Dauphin County district judge oversaw Laudenslager’s arraignment before she was taken to DJ McGuire’s office in Watts Township, Perry County. The dual arraignment was necessary because police took her into custody in Dauphin County but the charges were filed in Perry County.
In addition to the murder charge, police charged her with kidnapping, because Pierson was “found a great distance from her residence in her bedclothes, indicating she did not leave her residence of her own free will,” they say in the arrest papers.
Laudenslager was fired Friday from her job as director of western regional professional services, according to a statement released by the company.
“Highmark intends to cooperate fully with authorities regarding the ongoing investigation involving Rochelle,” spokesman Leilyn Perri said in the statement.
Her attorney, George Matangos reminds that Laudenslager is still innocent under the law until proven guilty. The “firearm appears to be incriminating evidence but we expect that that, as well as the charges will be addressed in court,” Matangos says.
Motive Not Known
Authorities still haven’t discussed a motive for the slaying. “There’s certainly a whole bunch of theories going around about this,” Chenot said.
And they also don’t know whether Pierson was killed at the intersection of Lambs Gap and Idle roads or somewhere else, he said. The only place they can rule out at this point is her home on Trout Lane, he said.
On Friday, snow still blanketed Elaine Pierson‘s driveway; a brownish pine wreath hung on her door, a reminder of the season in which Pierson was killed.
Chenot said authorities will continue to investigate whether there were other people involved in the murder. [The firend] who reported her missing, has been interviewed and may be again, he said.
Police have “at least a half-dozen, maybe more” people they want to interview again, Chenot said. “It would not surprise me at all if [his] name is on that list.”
Thursday’s arrest likely cut deep for Pierson’s family and friends, who waited for news while she was missing, then learned she had been murdered — and now, six weeks later, that a friend has been charged.
Those close to Pierson have not been willing to talk to the media in the past. On Friday, a tearful [friend] who also reported Pierson missing December 29, said she didn’t want to talk to the media when contacted at her home Friday. Another friend also declined to talk, and calls made to family members were not returned Friday.
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News articles and photo obtained through Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.