Police Corner Rodney Wagner In Dixonville, Indiana County
POSTED: 3:39 pm EST December 15, 2009
UPDATED: 1:17 am EST December 16, 2009
DIXONVILLE, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police used a cell phone transmission to find a murder suspect Tuesday in Indiana County, but when authorities moved in, police said they found him dead.
Rodney Wagner
Rodney Wagner, 38, was accused of killing his married girlfriend inside her home while her husband and son slept upstairs, police said. A statement released by the Indiana County Coroner's Office determined the incident to be a murder-suicide.
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Although they never had any contact with him, state police said they suspected Wagner was in his house when they were looking for him. State police said they got a ping from his cell phone during their search.
After three hours, the Special Emergency Response Team went inside the house on Route 403 in Green Township about a block away from the Sandy's Corner Convenience store.
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Police said they found Wagner dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The coroner's office said Wagner had been dead for several hours when he was discovered.
Police said Wagner shot Kim Romagna, 40, with a rifle shortly after noon Tuesday at a house on Hancock Street in Clymer. Romagna was pronounced dead at the scene at 1 p.m. of an apparent single gunshot wound to her head.
Police said Romagna's husband, from whom friends said she was estranged, and her adult son were upstairs, but they didn't hear anything.
Second and Hancock streets in Clymer, Indiana County
(Photo from Ashley Pribicko at 1160 WCCS)
"His grandmother got a phone call -- her mom -- from the boyfriend that said, 'I'm sorry, I shot your daughter,'" said Nancy Isenberg, a friend of Romagna.
Romagna's mother called the house and the husband went downstairs and found Romagna's body. Wagner then drove to his house, where he would shoot himself dead, according to the coroner's office.
Wagner had a criminal record that included assault and burglary, and the victim confided in friends that he had been violent toward her.
"He had been in the past. He hadn't been lately, but yes, he had in the past," Isenberg said. "Normal arguments was all I ever seen, and I have seen him throw a fist at her, but I haven't seen the damage that he's done in the past."
Isenberg said it's ironic because Romagna was always the one trying to diffuse arguments.
"(She was) very nice to everyone. If anybody else was ever fighting, she'd always hear both sides and was always right there trying to give advice you know or just to listen," Isenberg said.
State police said they were not immediately sure of a motive. The coroner's office said there reportedly had been a relationship between the victims but Romagna ended it a short time ago.
Autopsies are scheduled for Wednesday morning at the Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown. Funeral arrangements for Romagna will be managed by the Moriconi Funeral Home in Northern Cambria. Plans were incomplete for Wagner.
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