A police photograph of Rochelle K. Laudenslager who was arrested and charged with the murder of Elaine Pierson of Perry County, Pennsylvania. The photo appeared in the Carlisle Sentinel, March 2, 2007.
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 6 – Arrest, Preliminary Hearings and Reveal of Evidence
From the Carlisle Sentinel, February, 21, 2007:
LAUDENSLAGER HEARING IS POSTPONED
By Tatiana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
A preliminary hearing scheduled today for Rochelle Laudenslager has been postponed until March.
Laudenslager, 45, was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and burglary with the intent to kidnap in connection with the killing of her former lover, Elaine Pierson.
Pierson, 48, was found dead January 6, clad in pajamas at the bottom of an embankment about three miles from her Rye Township home after she had been reported missing December 29 [2006]. The Perry County woman was last heard from December 27, authorities said.
Police say Laudenslager removed Pierson from her home on Trout Lane and shot her four times — in the eye, hand, chest and a fourth location they wont disclose. The bullet that went into her chest lodged in her spine, and ballistics tests from it matched a Colt Frontier Scout Commemorative .22-caliber single action revolver that police took from the Gratz home of Betty Laudenslager, Rochelle Laudenslager, police say.
DNA from blood inside the gun’s barrel also matched Pierson’s DNA, police say. So they arrested Laudenslager at her Lower Paxton Township home late last Thursday afternoon. Her preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Daniel McGuire is now scheduled for 1:30 p. m. March 7.
State police now are focusing their investigation on whether they should charge anyone else in connection with Pierson’s death, says Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, March 2, 2007:
PERRY HOMICIDE VICTIM FEARED SUSPECT
Elaine Pierson told a friend that she thought Rachel [sic] Laudenslager was “out to get her,” according to an affidavit.
By Tatliana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
Authorities now say that Elaine Pierson was afraid of Rochelle Laudenslager and refused to bail her out of jail when Laudenslager was arrested in Nevada in October.
One of Pierson’s close friends told police that “Elaine had said several times that she was concerned about Rochelle harming Elaine after Rochelle had been arrested in Nevada,” according to a probable cause affidavit filed February 20 in Perry County in connection with the Pierson homicide case.
On October 15, police in Reno, Nevada, charged Laudenslager with domestic battery after they said she hit her sister with a “blunt object.” That charge was later dismissed, police said.
After obtaining a search warrant, Pennsylvania state police Corporal Simon Wellman of the Newport barracks searched Laudenslager’s PNC Bank records February 22, including her checking and savings accounts, home equity line of credit, credit and debit cards to look for “the purchase of ammunition, and other items related to the usage of firearms,” according to the affidavit.
Police charged Laudenslager, 45, of Lower Paxton Township, on February 15 with first-degree murder, kidnapping and burglary with the intent to kidnap in connection with Pierson’s death in December.
The 48-year-old Rye Township woman was reported missing December 29, two days after friends last heard from her.
A group of friends found Pierson’s body January 6, the same day Trooper Steven Strawser spoke with her friend about Pierson’s fears of Laudenslager.
Found Under a Log
Police now say Pierson’s body was found under a log and covered with leaves and branches at the bottom of an embankment near the intersection of Lambs Gap and Idle roads in Rye Township.
No bullets or shell casings were found at the site, the records say.
Laudenslager told police on January 2 that she was interested in rekindling a romantic relationship with Pierson but couldn’t because Pierson was involved with another woman.
Pierson and Laudenslager were trying to get together the week of Christmas, but couldn’t get their schedules to mesh, police said in Laudenslager’s arrest papers.
Suspect Was Crying
Police say Laudenslager’s mother, Betty Laudenslager of Gratz, told them her daughter was crying on December 27 when she brought the family commemorative .22-caliber Colt single-action Frontier Scout revolver to the Gratz home in a plastic bag, transferred it to its box and put it under insulation in the attic.
Laudenslager faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge Daniel McGuire on Wednesday afternoon in the Perry County Courthouse.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, March 6, 2007:
SLAY SUSPECT FACES NEW CHARGES
By Tatiana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
Rochelle Laudenslager faces charges of sparring with police when they arrived to arrest her in connection with homicide of her former lover February 15.
State police filed paperwork Monday to charge Laudenslager, 45, with five counts of aggravated assault, three counts of simple assault, one count of recklessly endangering another person and one count of resisting arrest.
Police say that when troopers arrived at an apartment in Susquehanna Township to arrest Laudenslager, she held a 6-inch knife in front of her with the point down. She struggled with troopers who ordered her to get on the ground, according to court documents.
Eventually troopers restrained Laudenslager on the floor, but she continued to resist, court documents say.
Trooper Steven Strawser suffered a small cut on his left index finger during the struggle and Laudenslager suffered a small cut above her right eye when she was taken to the floor.
Laudenslager was charged last month with first-degree homicide, kidnapping and burglary with the intent to kidnap Elaine Pierson, 48, who was found dead January 6 about three miles from her Rye Township home in Perry County. Pierson was last heard from December 27 and reported missing two days later.
She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday at the Perry County Courthouse.
Police have said Laudenslage’s mother’s commemorative revolver was used in Pierson’s slaying and that a tearful Laudenslager returned it to her mother’s [Gratz] Dauphin County home during the night December 27 in a plastic bag, put it in its box and hid it under insulation in the attic.
Blood from inside the revolver’s barrel matched Pierson’s DNA, police determined.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, March 8, 2007:
SUSPECT ARRESTED AT FRIEND’S HOUSE
From the kitchen window of a Dauphin County apartment, Rochelle Laudenslager had a clear view of the four state police troopers who drove into the parking lot and walked to the front door to arrest her, an officer testified Wednesday.
They pounded on the door and rang the bell but no one answered for between a minute and ninety seconds, said Trooper Steven Strawser.
They knew Laudenslager was living at the apartment, rather than at her Lower Paxton Township townhouse, because they had set up surveillance on her, he said.
Finally [the woman], who leased the apartment in the 300 block of North Progress Avenue, Susquehanna Township, asked who was there.
Strawser said it was state police and they had an arrest warrant, but [the woman] kept asking questions, he said.
“We must have repeated this back and forth three times,” he testified.
“I told her, ‘Open the door or we’re going to kick it down.'”
[The woman] opened the door, and Strawser and the other three troopers — Cpl. William Arndt, Trooper Cory Robenolt and Trooper James Albert — entered.
Robenolt stayed with Burke at the bottom of the stairs, while Albert and Arndt went upstairs into the bedrooms and Strawser went upstairs into the kitchen, “yelling, ‘Rochelle, we have an arrest warrant,'” Strawser said.
“As I got to the top of the steps, I heard, ‘I’m in here,'” he said.
He found an anxious Laudenslager in the corner of the kitchen in front of the window standing at a “portable cutting board table,” he said. Several kitchen knives were nearby.
“I said, ‘Rochelle, we have a warrant. You’re under arrest.’ She said, ‘What for?’ I said, ‘Rochelle, you’re under arrest,'” Strawser testified.
Laudenslager’s hands reached for the knives and Strawser dashed across the room, grabbing her as she brought a knife up to her chest with the blade down, he said.
Early in the struggle, she dropped the knife, but he didn’t know she was unarmed until police finally handcuffed her.
“She wouldn’t go down” while they stood in the kitchen, and she wouldn’t take her hands away from her chest, where they were still tightly clasped, Strawser said.
So Arndt pulled one of Laudenslager’s legs out from under her to bring her to the ground, and the officers forcibly pulled her hands around to her back. “I said, ‘Rochelle, where the knife?’ and she said, ‘What knife? What are you taking about?'” They found the butcher knife, which had a 6-inch blade, on the kitchen floor.
Police filed the slate of assault charges against Laudenslager on Monday, saying they feared for their safety during the arrest. Strawser suffered a small cut on his finger during the scuffle.
But Laudenslager’s defense attorney, George Matangos, asked District Judge Daniel McGuire to drop the assault charges, saying that there wasn’t any evidence that Laudenslager intended to harm troopers with the knife. Instead, she may have wanted to hurt herself, he said. The district judge refused, forwarding five charges of aggravated assault, three charges of simple assault, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest to Perry County Court.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, March 8, 2007:
HER LAWYER SAYS IT WAS A MURDER SUICIDE PLAN THAT SHE DIDN’T FINISH
LAWYER DOWNPLAYS GUN CONNECTION
By Sentinel Staff
When Rochelle Laudenslager brought her father’s “souvenir” gun back to her mother’s house, December 27, 2006, she said she was going to kill herself with it, her mother testified at Laudenslager’s preliminary hearing Wednesday.
Laudenslager’s defense attorney, George Matangos, hinted that after Elaine Pierson‘s death, police were investigating a murder/suicide pact that failed.”
He later downplayed the evidence as solely circumstantial.
“She had possession of (the gun), he said. “That doesn’t prove that she committed the act.”
Nevertheless, District Judge Daniel McGuire bound all charges against the Dauphin County woman over for trial in perry County.
She is charged with one count of criminal homicide, one count of kidnapping and one count of burglary with intent to kidnap in connection with Pierson’s removal from her Perry County home, and five charges of aggravated assault, three charges of simple assault, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest because police say Laudenslager grabbed a kitchen knife and resisted their attempts to handcuff her on February 1 [2007]. Laudenslager remains in Cumberland County Prison without bail.
Betty Laudenslager told DJ McGuire she wanted to hide the Colt revolver from her daughter after Rochelle brought it into the house in a plastic bag around 9:15 p. m.
“She said she wanted to take her life, and I said, ‘Rochelle, don’t do this to me. I can’t handle that’ I thought, well. I have to go hide that gun,” she said.
But Rochelle Laudenslager saw what she was doing and took the box from her. They took the revolver upstairs together, Betty Laudenslager told the court.
A state trooper testified Betty Laudenslager was a reluctant witness who authorities had to subpoena to appear on Wednesday.
“She loves her daughter dearly, and she knows anything she says about her can be harmful to her,” Trooper James Albert said.
Laudenslager’s late father bought the commemorative Colt, which Betty Laudenslager kept on her bedroom shelf, she said.
“He used to take it out and show it to people,” she said. She said she didn’t notice when the gun disappeared from its box.
Laudenslager told police she was Pierson’s lover until 2002, and Pierson’s most recent partner… testified she got together with Pierson in 2003.
The 45-year old Laudenslager told police on January 2 that she wanted to get back together with Pierson but couldn’t while Pierson and [another woman] were in a relationship.
[The other woman] testified at the hearing that Laudenslager and Pierson had plans for December 27, while [she] and Pierson had plans for the next evening. [When she] awoke on the morning of the 28th, [she] checked her computer instant message program and saw that Pierson’s computer activity had been “idle” since the evening before. “I found that to be odd, because she was always on the computer….”
At lunchtime, [she] sent Pierson and instant message, and got an automated reply — Pierson was away from her computer. When Pierson didn’t show up that night, [she] went to her house and found the lights on, Pierson’s cell phone there, the gas fireplace on and her German shepherd, Radcliffe, upstairs. The only thing out of place was an artificial tree that had been knocked over.
“I called Elaine’s name a couple times, because it just looked like she was there,” she said. [She] searched the whole house and garage and waited on Pierson’s porch for an hour before finally going home just after 10 p. m., she said.
But she went back at 6 a. m., the next day and began calling everyone who might know where Pierson was.
“I actually called Rochelle and left two messages,” she said.
She also saw on Pierson’s cell phone that [a close friend] was the last person Pierson talked to, so she called him at 8 a. m. December 29. He urged her to call police.
Call Interrupted
[The man], of Hampden Township, was a past friend of Pierson’s who had recently returned to the area and reconnected with 48-year old Rye Township woman, he said.
He and Pierson normally talked about “half a dozen” time a day, he testified, and they spoke at 8:19 p. m. December 27 while he was almost ready to leave a dinner party at his sister’s home.
“I think she was watching TV,” he said, noting Pierson “sounded tired” and was probably getting ready for bed. Pierson ended the call after saying she heard someone at the door and would call him back.
She never did.
He tried to get in touch with her the next day.
“I tried to call her back twice, and I text messaged her four times,” he said.
[The man] also called Laudenslager.
“She asked me what I knew,” he said at the hearing. “We talked about when I spoke to Elaine last.”
[The woman in the relationship with] Pierson [reported her] missing around 10 a. m. December 29.
[The man] said he had met Laudenslager a few times at Pierson’s house, and took her computer shopping once.
“Did you and Rochelle ever discuss guns?” Perry County District Attorney Charles “Chad” Chernot asked him.
“She asked me about my guns and I showed her my rifle and my pistol” in early December, when [he] and a friend stopped at Pierson’s house after hunting.
“Did she express any interest in guns at that point?” Chenot asked.
“Yes, she seemed interested.” [He] said Laudenslager “mentioned a gun that she had access to” either during that visit or a subsequent phone call.
She told him it was a .22-caliber handgun, and she was interested in going with [him], who owns “more than 20” firearms to a range and learning to shoot it, he said.
But they never did, he said.
Comment Led To Search
Police showed up at [the man’s] house on January 17 to look at his weapons — he volunteered them without a search warrant, police say — and to take his .22 caliber firearm to test whether it was the one that fired the fatal shots at Pierson. he asked about Laudenslager’s .22.
“I said, ‘Oh, by the way, did you check out the .22 that Rochelle said she had access to?”
That comment led troopers to Betty Laudenslager‘s attic January 31, where she told them the gun was hidden.
“Betty took her hand and she waived it, and she said, ‘It’s there'” Trooper Albert testified.
They finally found the Colt revolver after looking under the insulation in several places in the attic. “Just by looking at it, it appeared to have been fired,” Albert said.
Chemical testing on blood inside the barrel showed it was Pierson’s, Albert said. Tests on the outside of the gun were inconclusive.
Authorities don’t know whether Pierson was shot where her body was found, but they didn’t find any spent casings or any other bullets besides the ones inside Pierson’s body. The could could hold six shots, Albert said.
Dozens Attend Hearing
Laudenslager appeared for the court Wednesday wearing a light gray sweatshirt, red prison pants and shite shoes. Her expression appeared pained before the proceedings.
During a court recess, she read what appeared to be a greeting card.
About 70 people turned out at the Perry County Courthouse to watch the hearing, including several dozen of Pierson’s friends.
Her friend’s found Pierson’s body January 6 off Idle Road near the intersection with Lambs Gap Road in Rye Township.
Perry County Coroner Michael Shalonis said her body, clad in pajamas with her socks and bedroom slippers nearby, was lying under a fallen tree and Pierson had been shot four times. Two bullets were collected from inside her body — one from her wrist and one from the spinal bones in her neck.
Investigators concluded one came from a .22-caliber colt revolver, but the other bullet was too mutilated to tell.
“How many people did it take to move her?” Matangos asked during Shalonis’ cross-examination. “Two of us,” the coroner responded.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, March 12, 2007:
SEARCH WARRANTS RESEALED
Two search warrants filed in Cumberland County in connection with Elaine Pierson‘s death have been sealed for another 30 days.
The affidavits of probable cause saying why state police wanted to search Rochelle Laudenslager‘s workplace and why they wanted a gun from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s department are still not open for the public to view.
Police searched Highmark in east Pennsboro Township on January 11 [2006], looking at Laudenslager’s computer, telephone logs, billing statements and other items. Police charged the Dauphin County woman with homicide for her ex-lover’s death in December.
On January 23, police filed a search warrant seeking the barrel of a .22-caliber firearm and “any and all ammunition” for it.
Police later said Pierson, of Rye Township, was killed with a .22-caliber firearm, although they later discovered through ballistics testing that a commemorative Colt revolver owned by Betty Laudenslager fired at least one of the four bullets that struck Pierson. Since only two of the bullets have been found, police said they do not know whether more than one weapon was involved in the shooting.
Body Found January 6 [2007]
Pierson’s friends found her body January 6 in a wooded area about three miles from her home. Police said she was shot to death in her pajamas and her body covered by a fallen tree.
Laudenslager faces a formal arraignment in Perry County Court on April 5 [2007], at which time the search warrants can be made public, authorities have said.
Police continue to investigate the homicide, Perry County District Attorney Chad Chenot says.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, April 5, 2007:
MURDER SUSPECT CLAIMED SELF-HELP PLAN HELPED HER
By Tatliana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
Rochelle Laudenslager reported in an online post about a year ago that a self-help process called “The Work” helped her deal with personal issues.
The Work teaches people to examine their beliefs about how life should be and to realize that can embrace a reality that may never meet their expectations, according to its founder Byron Kathleen Mitchell.
But The Work didn’t solve all of Laudenslager’s problems. She was scheduled for formal arraignment this morning in Perry County Court in connection with the December 2006 shooting death of her ex-lover, Elaine Pierson, of Rye Township.
Her defense attorney, George Matangos, can have her enter a plea at that hearing, and District Attorney Chad Chenot can declare what grade of homicide he will pursue and whether he’ll seek the death penalty. [Note: A “Breaking News” box with the article indicated “Perry County District Attorney Chad Chenot said this morning he will seek the death penalty.”].
Laudenslager, of Lower Paxton Township, wrote on The Work’s online network in April 2006 that she had attended an intensive weekend session with Mitchell and later used Mitchell’s inquiry process to coach employees at Highmark in East Pennsboro Township, where Laudenslager was director of western regional professional services.
Laudenslager, 45, said in her online profile that The Work helped her deal with “family issues, health issues, relationship issues, success and failure, weight, diet or body image and work place issues.”
She expressed interest in doing The Work with others as a volunteer facilitator” on the phone or in person — an offer that Mitchell says she doesn’t endorse for anyone on the Web network.
“The Work continues to reveal all answers/wisdom within — working with the true self, not against,” Laudenslager wrote. “As my mind continues to meet itself with understanding, open to seeing alternatives, I notice how a false belief gradually holds less power, unravels and falls away.”
Mitchell doesn’t endorse or check out the profiles on the online network, she adds. “Anyone could put their names out there.”
Matangos, however, confirms that the posting was made by Laudenslager.
Mitchell says she has seen people freed from years of anger and hurt after they have confronted their stressful thoughts with four probing questions….
Her believers stand up in sessions around the globe and read to her their tales of past personal tragedy, their worst fears for the future or their mental anguish over a significant other’s failures.
“It’s like years of psychology in a moment,” Mitchell says. But she makes no claims to be a psychologist.
Years of depression and a night on the floor of a halfway house in 1986 led the California woman to discover her inner peace, which developed into The Work. Now Mitchell –everyone calls her “Katie” — is a public speaker and author.
She leads weekend workshops and nine-day “School for The Work” sessions that costs more than $4000. A three-day “intensive” session costs at least $400.
Mitchell estimates The Work has now reached millio9ns of people in 30 countries, from young children to hardened prisoners.
She has brought The Work to lifers at San Quenton prison in California for free.
“When I hear what they were believing (before they murdered someone)… anyone would have done the same thing,” she said.
“This woman is guilty of believing her thoughts, and another woman is dead,” she says of Laudenslager.
Laudenslager’s actions don’t jive with the lasting inner peace that Mitchell says her process brings to those who practice its “inquiry” every time a disturbing thought surfaces.
Mitchell says The Work can heal mental illness. Those who see the truth can never return to their foremost lives of anger or despair, she insists.
So, what went wrong with Laudenslager?
“I would say she got off to a good start and it just wasn’t enough,” Mitchell says. “It takes work. I don’t call it ‘The Work’ for nothing.”
Treated for Depression
In October, a few months after Laudenslager discovered The Work, and wrote about how much it helped her, she was discharged from the Carson-Tahoe mental health facility in Nevada, where her sister said Laudenslager was being treated for depression and a sleep disorder, according to a police report filed by the Reno Police Department.
On October 15, police say Laudenslager smacked her sister… in the head with a frying pan in Reno, Nevada, while the woman slept in bed at 5:30 a. m.
[The sister] awoke and went to the bathroom to check on her injuries, she told police, Then she went to look at a chair in her bedroom where Laudenslager had hidden something among a pile of clothes.
Laudenslager “quickly went to get the object, and we struggled a bit, but I let her take it and she went downstairs with it and I did not follow,” [the sister] wrote in a statement to police after the incident. “I was scared.” [She] called her daughter and told police she was afraid calling 911 might “lead to further attacks,” police said in a report.
Laudenslager contended she didn’t hit her sister but went to check on her after she heard [her] scream. Laudenslager also said the two garage doors were open after the attack. Police say the doors were closed when they arrived 20 minutes later.
The misdemeanor domestic battery charge was dropped because Laudenslager was ruled incompetent with “numerous psychiatric issues” during the incident, authorities said in a court disposition.
Just 10 weeks later, police in Perry County say Laudenslager fatally shot her ex-lover after taking Elaine Pierson from Pierson’s home on Trout Lane. Pierson’s body was found in a wooded area off Lamb’s Gap Road January 5 [2007].
State police say Pierson told a friend she feared Laudenslager after the attack on McMillan. Laudenslager called Pierson from the Nevada jail and asked for bail money, but Pierson refused, the friend told police.
Laudenslager told police before her arrest that she wanted to re-establish a romantic relationship with Pierson, but Pierson was involved with another woman, so that wasn’t possible.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, April 6, 2007:
LAWYER CALLS TRIAL PUBLICITY DAMAGING
By Tatliana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
Rochelle Laudenslager’s lawyer says he will be looking for a new location for her trial in the murder of her ex-lover because of the notoriety the case attracted.
Laudenslager appeared in Perry County court Thursday morning to enter a plea of “not guilty” in the murder of elaine Pierson and left knowing she would face the death penalty when she comes to trial.
Her defense attorney, George Matangos, said earlier this week he will be trying to figure out where he can try the case, because so many people in the the local counties know about it from the media coverage.
Laudenslager’s next court appearance is scheduled for July 12 [2007] in Perry County Court, at which point a trial date could be set.
At Laudenslager’s formal arraignment Thursday, Perry County District Attorney Chad Chenot said he would seek the death penalty because of two “aggravated circumstances” — that Laudenslager committed the murder while engaged in felony kidnapping and that she killed Pierson by torture, he said.
The 45-year old Dauphin County woman is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Elaine Pierson, 48, of Rye Township. Laudenslager also is charged with felony kidnapping and burglary with intent to kidnap in connection with Pierson’s death last December.
Laudenslager pleaded not guilty to all charges and requested a jury trial. She appeared before President Judge Joseph Rehkamp wearing red prison clothing with a white shirt underneath it and shite sneakers.
Authorities say Laudenslager shot Pierson four times the evening of December 27 after taking Pierson from her home on Trout Lane.
Chenot said Laudenslager killed Pierson “by means of torture” because Pierson was shot four times.
“The theory is that she didn’t die immediately,” he said after the hearing.
Authorities said at Laudenslager’s preliminary hearing last month that three of the gunshot wounds could have been fatal.
Friends reported Pierson missing December 29 and found her body January 6 in a wooded area about three miles from her Rye Township home.
Laudenslager, of Lower Paxton Township, was arrested February 15 at a friend’s apartment in Susquehanna Township. Police later filed more charges against her in connection with the arrest — five counts of aggravated assault, three counts of simple assault, and one count of recklessly endangering another person and one count of resisting arrest.
They said Laudenslager held a knife in front of herself when a state police trooper arrived to arrest her, and she resisted his attempts to handcuff her.
Laudenslager’s defense attorney George Matangos, declined to comment after Tuesday’s court appearance, citing a request from the judge that he not talk about the case to the press.
Police say a commemorative .22-caliber Colt revolver belonging to Laudenslager’s late father was used in Pierson’s slaying and that a tearful Laudenslager returned it to her mother’s [Gratz] Dauphin County home during the night of December 27 in a plastic bag. She put it in its box and hid it under insulation in the attic, authorities say.
Blood from inside the revolver’s barrel matched Pierson’s DNA, police determined.
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From the Carlisle Sentinel, April 14, 2007:
SUSPECT’S CELL RECORDS PUT HER NEAR SLAYING
By Tatliana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter
Fifteen minutes before Elaine Pierson told a friend she heard someone at the door, Rochelle Laudenslager was checking a cell phone message through a Cingular tower in Summerdale, according to court records.
A now-unsealed affidavit of probable cause for a warrant to search Laudenslager’s work computers reveals that when Laudenslager, 45, called her voice mail at 8:06 p. m. on December 27, the call was placed to a tower 5.7 miles from Pierson’s Rye Township home in Perry County.
Pierson spoke to her [male] friend… at 8:20 p. m. and cut the conversation short to check out a noise at the door, he told authorities. That was the last time anyone heard from Pierson, 48, who was reported missing December 29.
Laudenslager, of Lower Paxton Township, told police she spent the night at her mother’s home in Gratz, and her mother, Betty Laudenslager “was adamant” that her daughter arrived that night at 9:15 p. m. Betty didn’t know whether Rochelle spent the night because Betty went to bed first and Rochelle was gone when she awoke, she told police on January 5.
The two talked on the phone for ten minutes just before 9 a. m. the next morning, the affidavit says.
The justification for the January 9 search warrant was unsealed on Monday. It reveals that police seized an HP laptop computer, a CD containing Lotus Notes, a CD with network shared information, a Cingular Blackberry, a pay statement, emergency contact list, resume and business card for Laudenslager at Highmark in East Pennsboro Township.
Police wanted to look at her work computers, Cpl. George Cronin wrote, because defendants in other homicide investigations used their work computers “to research how to commit homicide, communicate with co-conspirators and victims.”
The affidavit shows that police originally thought [the male friend], of Hampden Township, supplied a weapon to Laudenslager, although authorities now say Laudenslager took her late father’s commemorative Scout revolver from her mother’s home and used it to kill Pierson.
When police interviewed her on January 6 at the site where Pierson’s body was found, Laudenslager “was evasive and nervous when asked direct questions about [the man with the 20 guns] or Pierson,” the affidavit states. Laudenslager was part of the search party that day, police say.
Laudenslager is charged with first-degree murder, felony kidnapping and burglary with the intent to kidnap in connection with the case, and also faces assault and resisting arrest charges in connection with her February 15 arrest in Susquehanna Township [Dauphin County].
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News articles and photo obtained through Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.